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Organizational Diffusion: What India Tells Us about How the Far Right Wins

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  • Felix Pal

Abstract

Presenting a world-first data set of 2,831 constitutive organizations of history's largest far-right interorganizational network, this article presents a new explanation for far-right normalization: organizational diffusion. Providing, for the first time, empirical evidence of the large network characteristics of the Indian far right, this article paints a picture of what this network actually looks like, how far it has spread, and what explains its success. In doing so, this explanation unearths a far-right strategy of covert civil society expansion that has largely evaded the party-focused extant study of global far-right electoral mobilization. Identifying this strategy of organizational diffusion, this article argues that it produces three effects that produce broad, flexible, and durable mobilizations: segmented representation, reputational control, and leadership accommodation. Organizational diffusion, present in far-right mobilizations as diverse as Ma Ba Tha, Nippon Kaigi, and the Thai military, presents an important far-right mobilizing tool that exhorts scholars to refocus on covert civil society expansion as a key mechanism of far-right normalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Pal, 2025. "Organizational Diffusion: What India Tells Us about How the Far Right Wins," Politics & Society, , vol. 53(2), pages 210-242, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:53:y:2025:i:2:p:210-242
    DOI: 10.1177/00323292241284114
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