Rise and Fall of the British National Party ─ A Sociological Perspective

This book offers a Gramscian sociological analysis of the electoral rise and ‘fall’ of the British National Party (BNP) in the Outer-East London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Through a critical evaluation of the political-scientific theories that have so far dominated attempts to explain the electoral performance of far right parties, this book will assess the significance of the relationship between political parties and wider civil society.

With reference to no fewer than 162 ethnographic conversations, 31 in-depth interviews with local voters and 18 months of political ethnographic observation, Rise and fall of the British National Party: A sociological perspective stresses the importance of how voters negotiate the objective structural, cultural and political conditions in which they find themselves. With up-to-date, relevant discussions of the politicisation of issues such as ‘race’ and ‘nation’, as well as the political terrain after the 2010 and 2015 general elections, the book demonstrates how class identification is a powerful feature of BNP supporters’ disassociation with mainstream party politics.

Offering an analysis of the BNP’s rise and ‘fall’ at both the local and the national level, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of British politics, party politics, and fascism and the far right.

Dr Stephen Ashe is a member of the Centre of Dynamics of Ethnicity, based at the University of Manchester. His doctoral thesis explored the electoral rise and a€?falla€? of the British National Party in Barking and Dagenham. He is currently working on an archival and interview study seeking to recover the a€?hidden historya€? of Britaina€?s anti-racist civil rights movement.