Cas Mudde's book 'The Far Right Today' is an excellent summary of the development of the far right from it's first, post-Second World War phase in the late 1940s, to its current fourth wave phenomenon ranging from the populist radical right to extreme right terror groups.
It asks the questions on a global scale why have far right policies and parties become so prevalent and considers ways to challenge them, with Mudde potentially moving from the realm of academic to activist?
Mudde is particularly interesting on the response to the rise of the far right and how liberal democratic parties have moved from demarcation (effectively ostracising the far right), to confrontation, cooptation (of their policyviews, if not the parties themselves), to incorporation. It is interesting to consider the rise of the populist radical right in Britain and contemplate where we are in that process today? (In many ways it is sad the Mudde's book was written in 2019 and given all that has happened needs a five years later revision.)
Mudde ends his book with twelve theses on the fourth wave of the far right and leaves us with some hope for challenging its current dominance. He notes that, in the not too distant future, with society rapidly changing demographically and in its acceptance of diversity, there is hope to defeat extreme rhetoric.
He ends the books stating: "The ultimate goal of all responses to the far right should be the strengthening of liberal democracy. Put simply, only fighting the far right does not necessarily strengthen liberal democracy, but strengthening liberal democracy will, by definition, weaken the far right."
For those of us interested in defeating far right rhetoric defending a pluralistic society honouring fundamental rights will see the their disturbing and regressive views confined to history.