Slicing the gordian knot of political extremism: Issues and potential solutions regarding its conceptualization and terminology

Abstract

The main goal of the present work is to highlight the problems surrounding the current definition of political extremism and the misuse of this and other related terms like radicalism and radicalization. It is argued that these issues generate confusion and obscure research efforts regarding these phenomena. We identify four major problems regarding the terminology used to describe the phenomenon of political extremism: a polysemy problem, an inadequate equivalence between the terms extremism and radicalism, uncertainty about the role of violence in defining political extremism, and the fact that the term ‘radicalization’ is more closely associated with extremists rather than radicals. We describe how these problems affect both research on extremism and hinder its application and we propose potential solutions for such issues.