A comparison of individual needs and support of violence among radicals, extremists and fundamentalists in Western Europe

Abstract

In the light of increasing extremist attacks in Western Europe, we take a step back and provide the first large-scale, systematic, and cross-national investigation of commonalities and differences between people who hold left- or right-wing radical, political extremist, or religious fundamentalist attitudes. Using survey data from Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, we investigate to what extent these attitudes can be explained by similar or different factors at the individual level and how much support these individuals show for political violence. Using a unique survey with newly developed and validated measures, we find several commonalities (and some differences) in the socio-demographic and socio-psychological backgrounds of radicals, extremists, and fundamentalists. However, our research shows that these groups differ strongly in their support to justify political violence.