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This paper investigates the consequences of immigration, crime and socio-economic depriviation for the performance of right-wing extremist and populist parties in the German city state of Hamburg between 1986 and 2005. The ecological determinants of voting for right-wing parties on the district level are compared to those for mainstream and other protest parties. Parallels and differences in spatial characteristics between right-wing extremist and populist parties' performance are identified. Our empirical results tend to confirm the general contextual sociological theory of right-wing radicalization by general social deprivation and immigration. Nevertheless they indicate that one has to be very cautious when interpreting the unemployment/crime - right-winger nexus. Moreover, crime does not seem to have a strong significant effect on right-wing populist parties' election successes despite its importance for their programmes and campaigns.

Nach den deutlichen Erfolgen extremistischer Parteien in den letzten Bundestags-, Landtags- und Kommunalwahlen und der Zunahme rechtsradikaler Aktivitäten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, steht die Frage nach der Bekämpfung des Rechts- und Linksradikalismus verstärkt im Mittelpunkt der demokratischen Parteien. Es ist daher von zentraler Bedeutung für die Verhinderung einer dauerhaften parlamentarischen Präsenz undemokratischer Parteien, die Ursachen für die Wahl links- und rechtsextremer Parteien zu kennen. Mit Hilfe der zur Verfügung stehenden Wahlergebnisse identifiziert der Beitrag die folgenden zehn relevante Determinanten extremistischen Wahlverhaltens: Ost-West-Unterschiede; trendmäßige Veränderungen in den Präferenzen der Wähler; Stadt-Land-Unterschiede; Ausländersituation und sozioökonomische Konflikte; Altersstruktur; Sozialleistungen als Ausdruck sozialer Deprivation; Bildungsniveau und -infrastruktur; Arbeitsmarktsituation; Wirtschaftsleistung und -struktur; Wohnsituation. (ICA)

Empirical research on the determinants of right and left-wing extremist election successes is still dominated by descriptive statistical methods. The existing literature in political economy and political science mainly relies on interviews and survey results as well as on qualitative analyses of party organizations and programs. Contrary to this approach, in this study we try to identify significant, structural socio-economic factors which determined the vote for the right-wing ?Republikaner? party and the left-wing Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) in the two recent elections of the European Parliament in Germany. We use a new data set on the level of German counties (Kreise) that is analyzed econometrically by a FGLS random effects panel model. The results we obtain are partly in stark contrast to empirical findings discussed in the mainstream literature and in the public. The resulting, most important areas of political action against extremist parties seem to be education, a differentiated labor market policy, social work with adolescents, and the maintenance of a generous system of social security and welfare.