Extremism of the centre

Extremism of the centre is a term in sociology introduced by Seymour Martin Lipset. In his book Political Man (1960) he wrote that left-wing extremism has its basis in the lower classes and the working class, while right-wing extremism is anchored in the upper classes, and fascism originates in the socioeconomic middle class. He did not define the term fascism further. This analysis was extended by the sociologist Theodor Geigers, who explained the election success of the Nazi Party in the early 1930s as a reaction from the Mittelstand, and related his analysis to the contemporary analysis of extremist and anti-democratic movements of the middle of society. This added a new type to the extremism of the left and right, and explained fascism as a typically middle-class movement.

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