Practical and Theoretical Implications of Right-Wing Ecology

This concluding chapter attempts to answer three questions: how widespread the ideas of right-wing ecology are outside of Germany; what the implications of this study are for our understanding of the contemporary far right; and how durable right-wing ecological ideas are. In regard to the first question, the chapter argues that right-wing ecology is not an exclusively German phenomenon. Indeed, examples can be found in the Netherlands, France, Russia, the United States, and perhaps most clearly in Switzerland. In terms of the second question, previous chapters of the book have demonstrated that right-wing ecology in Germany illustrates one way in which an ecological far right represents, at least in part, a right-wing authoritarian, but nevertheless non-materialist, pole of the New PoliticsNew Politics divide. Finally, in regard to the third question, the chapter suggests that there exists a small possibility that the far right will profit electorally from its use of right-wing ecological discourse, especially among potential younger voters for whom support for environmental protection is most pronounced. However, the impact of right-wing ecology on voting for the far right may ultimately be much less significant than its impact at the meta-political level of ideas and, in turn, the further mainstreaming of right-wing ecological ideas.