>>The last truly big resurgence of the far right in European politics was associated with a very severe economic downturn.<<
Too true.
Not just Europe, also Japan, the US, Latin America. In the USA, it was more reactionary populism, like the KKK, Silver Shirts.
But the downturn then was far worse than now -- 82% unemployment in the building trades in Germany the winter before Hitler became chancellor.
Still, you don't need a downturn as bad as that for racism and nationalism to become resurgent. The US experienced a very sharp, but short, depression circa 1920-1923 - and Congress in 1921 passed a nationality act which excluded immigration to no more than 3% of any nationality then residing in the US, based on the census of 1910. Amended in 1924 to exclude more than 2% of any nationality based on the census of 1890.
Immigration, which peaked at 1.2 million in 1914, declined to 97,000 in 1931 -- and there were net losses in immigration for most of the 1930s -- about a quarter of a million immigrants went home (or elsewhere) between 1931-1936.
To mix my metaphors, when the economic pie shrinks, the people in the middle of the ladder slide down and start fighting for jobs with the people on the bottom. |
