The first Workshop of the Standing Group took place at the recent ECPR workshops. Our invitation to submit papers produced a strong response, and we had to turn down a variety of good papers in order to maintain a balance across topics, age, etc. Cas and Roger would have preferred an even broader range of topics/regions (something which we hope our new membership drive will help facilitate for future meetings). However, the overall programme was of a high standard and we hope that a book and some individual publications (two paper presenters were approached during the Workshops by the Editor of the European Journal of Political Research) will result from our discussions.

After two late withdrawals, 22 people attended the Extremism and Democracy Workshop (plus one silent partner!). As well as a general commentary by the Directors, the following papers were given:

Paul Lucardie (University of Groningen, Netherlands), Democrats, and Other Extremists. A comparative analysis of extremist parties in Germany and the Netherlands
Alexandre Dézé (IEP, France), An Alternative to the System or an Alternative within the System? An analysis of the relationship between extreme right parties and political systems of Western democracies
Ami Pedahazur (University of Haifa, Israel), Struggling Challenges of Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism within Democratic Boundaries: a comparative analysis
Philippe Poirier (University of Rennes, France), Subsidiarity, Regionalism and State-Nationalism: An ideological gap between European parties of the New Right?
Marcella Myers (University of West Michigan, US), Decentralization and the Extreme Right: implications for social policy in Central Europe
Laurent Godmer and Laurent Kestel (Sorbonne 1), Extremism and Democratic Coalitions. The institutional integration of extreme right parties in the regional parliaments of Germany, Austria and France
Alexandra Plows (University of Bangor, UK), From the Earth Liberation Front to Universal Dark Matter: the challenge of researching covert repertoires of action
Ineke van der Valk (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands), Political Discourse on Ethnic Issues: a comparison of the right and extreme right in the Netherlands and France (1990-1997)
Margarita Gomez-Reino (ISPO, Belgium), Identity Politics and Party Elites Strategic Dilemmas. Comparing varieties of Extremism: the Vlaams Blok and Lega Nord
Jack Veugelers (University of Toronto, Canada), Structural Conditions of Far-Right Emergence in Contemporary Western Europe: a comparative analysis of Kitschelt's theory
Damir Skenderovic (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), The Swiss Radical Right in Perspective. A re-evaluation of success conditions in Switzerland
Guido Dierickx (University of Antwerp, Belgium), The Extreme Right and Political Alienation: a causality riddle. The case of the Vlaams Blok in Belgium
Jens Rydgren (University of Stockholm, Sweden), Why Not in Sweden? Interpreting radical right populism in the light of a negative case
Anders Widfelt (University of Aberdeen, UK), The Democratic Response to Swedish Right-Wing Extremism
Giovanni Capoccia (European University Institute, Italy), Repression, Incorporation, Lustration, Education: How democracies react to their enemies. Towards a theoretical framework for the comparative analysis of defense of democracy
Harvey Simmons (York University, Canada), Women and the Extreme Right in France and Germany
Michael Butkovich (Georgetown University, US), The New Stalinism and the Soviet Re-Union: the danger of leftist extremism in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
Paul Statham (University of Leeds, UK), State Policies, Political Discourse and 'White' Public Opinion on Ethnic Relations and Immigration in Britain: Pushing the Borders of 'Externity'?
Joop van Holsteyn (University of Leiden, Netherlands), Neither Threat Nor Challenge. Right-Wing Extremism in the Netherlands.

A meeting of the Standing Group on Extremism and democracy was also held during the Workshops, at which we discussed issues such as the launch of a new journal, future conferences, etc. Watch this space.

Several members of our group have indicated that they would greatly appreciate the possibility to discuss issues related to the field of extremism and democracy with other members. We believe that the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy should provide such a forum in the form of a bulletin board. However, given that we are both busy with various other tasks linked to the SG, we invite members who are interested in running a bulletin board for the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy to contact us.

The idea is that the bulletin board will be housed at the local institution/university of the member, but a prominent link will be included on our Bath-based website. The member will be responsible for running the bulletin board, including the registration of the participants of the bulletin board. The bulletin should be open to all topics covered by our group, as well as to all serious opinions. The SG does not take an official opinion on political or academic positions and encourages open, but respectful discussion between all scholars interested in the topic. Consequently, it might be best to have the bulletin board housed in a country with a broad interpretation of freedom of speech, most notably the United States, to prevent problems. Also, the member responsible for the bulletin board will have to make sure to receive backing from his/her home institution, as they might not want to be associated with certain positions.

Those interested in running the Extremism & Democracy bulletin board, please contact both Roger and Cas before 15 June 2001. It is our hope to have the bulletin board up and running by the beginning of the next academic year.

As the membership and academic focus of the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy has increased dramatically over the past two years, we are now in need of an additional editor for e-Extreme, our quarterly electronic newsletter. The new editor would be required to supplement the existing knowledge (and contacts) of Roger and Cas, which is mainly political extremism in Europe. We are therefore particularly hoping that North American scholars with a different research specialism (e.g. religious fundamentalism) and geographical focus (e.g. North America, Asia) will be interested. The main tasks of the co-editor will include providing information on (a) conferences, (b) websites, and (c) articles in the field of extremism and democracy in general, and her/his field in particular.

Those interested in becoming a co-editor of e-Extreme, please contact both Roger and Cas before 15 June 2001. We aim to have you involved in the preparation of the next issue, i.e. Autumn 2001.

Both editors believe that there is a need to compile a register of courses currently being taught in higher education institutions which specifically relate to extremism and democracy (and the number of students taking them). We are not thinking of one off lectures, or a small number of lectures on, say, the rebirth of communism in Eastern Europe, the militias in the USA, or Islamic Fundamentalism. We are looking more for term, semester or year-long courses on topics such as the extreme right, the new 'communism', terrorism, religious fundamentalism, state responses to extremism, etc. Similarly, details of Masters degrees relevant to these themes would be of interest.

We think this will serve at least two main purposes. First, it will help the exchange of ideas on teaching, and what is currently attractive to students. Secondly, it will help series editors/publishers to assess the market for books. A common question for any book proposal concerns the market potential, but - unless the topic is a mainstream text - most academics have little serious idea of how to assess the market. We feel that a register of courses in our broad field will help demonstrate that this is a rapidly growing area.

So please send information about relevant courses to Roger or Cas. If there is sufficient feedback, we may put them up on the website in a separate file. We may also highlight interesting courses in future issues of this journal.