Books
Lenka Bustikova. 2020. Extreme Reactions: Radical Right Mobilization in Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108697248
Focusing on the rising support for the populist right in Eastern Europe, this book examines how anger and resentment towards minorities is being utilized in politics. Bustikova details the process by which the acquisition of political power and demand for rights by ascendant minority groups precipitates a backlash of mobilization from the radical right. However, this book also argues that prejudice against minorities is not a sentiment exclusive to right-wing voters and is not the root cause of increasing support for the radical right. Rather, this study reveals, variation in how minorities are accommodated by the government explains the electoral successes and failures of radical right parties. By examining their capitalization on these feelings of discontent towards politically assertive minorities and with the governmental policies that yield to their demands, Bustikova exposes volatile, zeitgeist-dependent conditions under which once fringe right-wing parties have risen to prominent but precarious positions of power.
* Winner of the Davis Center Book Prize [link]
The Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies, sponsored by Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, is awarded annually by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies for an outstanding monograph published on Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe in anthropology, political science, sociology, or geography. [link]
Reviewed by Erik Jones in Survival. An East-West Divide in Europe? Erik Jones. (2020). Europe, Survival, 62:3, 245-252.
Reviewed by Erin Jenne in Perspectives on Politics. Erin Jenne. (2020). Perspectives on Politics, 18(4), 1262-1264.
Reviewed by Michael Minkeberg in European Political Science. Michael Minkeberg. (2021). Policy backlash: a novel approach to the study of radical right mobilisation. Europan Political Science. [link]
Reviewed in Europe Asia Studies. Ryan Shaffer (2020) Extreme Reactions. Radical Right Mobilization in Eastern Europe, Europe-Asia Studies, 72:9, 1597-1599, DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2020.1834784
Reviewed by John Gould in East European Politics. John A. Gould (2023) Extreme Reactions: Radical Right Mobilization in Eastern Europe, East European Politics, DOI: 10.1080/21599165.2023.2230566 [link]
David S. Siroky, Valery Dzutsati and Lenka Bustikova. Defection Denied. A Study of Civilian Support for the Insurgency in Irregular War. Cambridge Elements Series in Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. [link]
in preparation: Cambridge Element. Lenka Bustikova. Attitudes towards Azov in Ukraine.