Violenza politica e strategie di azione: uno studio empirico sulle organizzazioni di estrema destra in Italia e Spagna

Despite growing scientific interest in the subject, the empirical investigation re- garding the strategic action choices related to the mobilization of right-wing organi- zations is still scarce, with most attention given to violence and few attempts to con- sider (and integrate for explanation) the context of both external (structural) and in- ternal (organizational) factors that might affect them. In this article, focusing on dif- ferent types of extreme-right organizations (political parties and non-party groups) in Italy and Spain, the emergence of violence by these groups as well as the use of other action strategies will be investigated. With a special emphasis on the actors’ percep- tions of reality, macro-level reasons (the organizations’ attitudes towards the politi- cal and institutional environment, the closure/openness of the context, the availability of allies, etc.), as well as meso-level factors (the characteristics and dynamics of in- dividual groups) will be tested. This will be achieved by combining qualitative and quantitative data from 20 semi-structured interviews with extreme-right leaders, with a protest event analysis of the most recent mobilization of extreme-right groups in the two countries (2005-09). The main differences and similarities between organizations and countries concerning right-wing mobilization specificities and the factors which influence them will be demonstrated.