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Vicente Valentim

Vicente Valentim is a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He earned a PhD from the European University Institute in 2021. Vicente studies how social norms help understand the behaviour of democratic citizens: what they think is acceptable to do in a democratic context, why that is, and how it changes.

Several countries around the world have recently witnessed very public displays of radical right behaviour. For example, during a protest in Chemnitz, Germany, in the summer of 2018, some demonstrators were seen giving a Nazi salute. Similarly, a year earlier during a protest in Charlottesville, VA, Charlottesville, VA, United States some demonstrators displayed confederate flags and swastikas. What explains this increased willingness to openly express radical right views? Explicit support for the radical right: A reflection of changing perceptions of the cost of support In a recent paper, I argue that these trends do not necessarily mean that individuals in these societies are becoming more extremist. They may also reflect a weakening of social norms against the expression of radical …