A Third Approach

Abstract

Social approaches to democratic self-defence follow a very different logic to militant and tolerant approaches. The general premise is that democratic breakdown is caused by economic crises and the experience of social injustice. Social structures and the logic of social organisation are the real culprits of democratic regression. Therefore, responses should take the form of socio-economic reforms of varying scale and degree. These reforms have a specific goal: not just formal equality or equality of opportunity, but the elimination of social disadvantage and effective social integration. Historically, this was achieved through policies of mass employment and universal welfare, described as anti-extremist weapons in inter-war Sweden and post-war Europe. More recently, containing the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn in Greece was seen as concomitant with the country’s recovery from a severe financial crisis. Despite contextual differences, these examples highlight the relevance of social conditions to the rise and fall of antidemocratic parties.