My research is centred in comparative politics. I study political violence and far-right socio-politics, as well as collaborating with colleagues on an array of other topics. My research applies a diverse array of methodological techniques, especially qualitative methods such as qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and case study designs.
Journal articles
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Michael C. Zeller and Michael Vaughan, “Proscribing Right-Wing Extremist Organizations in Europe: Variations, Trends, and Prospects,” Terrorism and Political Violence 0, no. 0 (2023): 1-23, doi:
10.1080/09546553.2023.2240446"... some states have proscribed right-wing extremist (RWE) organizations quite often, while others have used proscription laws only in isolated cases; still others eschew completely such legal instruments." -
Asya Metodieva and Michael C. Zeller, “Influences of Islamist Radicalization: A Configurational Analysis of Balkan Foreign Fighters in Syria,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (in press): 1-27, doi:
10.1080/1057610X.2023.2213967"While recruitment of IS foreign fighters was highly decentralized, local radical milieus secured both resilient social structures and authority, concentrated in influencers’ networks." -
Jana Hrckova and Michael C. Zeller, “The everyday abnormal and the quest for normalcy: How Polish equality marches build protester resilience,” Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics 7, no. 4 (2021): 104-123, doi:
10.17356/ieejsp.v7i4.817"... people like our interviewees must contend with a wobbly balance between the en- couraging normalcy provided by protest activity and the difficult abnormality they face in their everyday lives." -
Zsuzsanna Vidra and Michael C. Zeller, “Illiberalism, polarisation, resilience, and resistance: Concepts in dynamic tension,” Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics 7, no. 4 (2021): 1-12, doi:
10.17356/ieejsp.v7i4.945'... articles in this thematic issue are concerned with countries where illiberalism al- ready sits in the seat of power, namely in Central and Eastern Europe, where the establish- ment and operation of illiberal regimes is conspicuous, where ‘pernicious polarisation’ that strains resilience is often striking, and where resistance is crucial to halt or reverse illiberalisation.' -
Michael C. Zeller, “Demobilising far-right demonstration campaigns: Coercive counter-mobilisation, state social control, and the demobilisation of the Hess Gedenkmarsch campaign,” Social Movement Studies 21, no. 3 (2022): 372-390, doi:
10.1080/14742837.2021.1889493"The case exhibits a process whereby anti-far-right activists effectively engaged in a sort of kamikaze counter-mobilisation, seeking to shut down far-right events; this, in turn, spurred state authorities to act, imposing coercive measures that demobilised the far-right campaign." -
Michael C. Zeller, “Patterns of Negative Demobilisation: A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of large, far-right, demonstration campaigns,” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 26, no. 3 (2021): 267-284, doi:
10.17813/1086-671X-26-3-267"Whether due to inattention, indifference, or (particularly in cases where local state authorities oppose the far-right campaign) insufficient capacity, it appears that sometimes private forms of social control must first materialize to jolt the requisite state actor(s) out of lethargy or spur on the requisite state action." -
Michael C. Zeller, “Rethinking Demobilisation: Concepts, causal logic, and the case of Russia’s For Fair Elections movement,” Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 12, no. 1 (2020): 527-558.
"The study of social movements has long concentrated on mobilising and campaigning, that is, how movements get moving and then move. Yet this concentration on the initial upward slope and plateau of the life of movements deprived the latter, downward trajectory of much scholarly focus. How do movements falter and fail? What takes them from the apex of their strength and brings them low?" -
Michael C. Zeller, “Karlsruhe’s ‘giving fences’: mobilisation for the needy in times of COVID-19,” Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 12, no. 1 (2020): 292-303.
"... homeless and needy individuals take succour from the giving fences; and participants clearly derive distinct psycho-social benefits from engagement, which can alleviate strains arising from the public health response to COVID-19." -
Michael C. Zeller, “Shifting Political Dynamics and Democratic Disillusionment in Hungary’s Political Youth,” The Eurasian Era, 1, no. 1 (2016): 3-11.
"In young democratic regimes like Hungary and elsewhere in the post-Soviet space, twenty-five years has proven insufficient to establish resilient democracies. Political youth has not been socialized into a healthy democratic system, and without having experienced much or any of the preceding socialist system, thus lacking that comparative frame, it significantly expresses dissatisfaction with the current regime." -
Michael C. Zeller, “Battle for the Base: How the Manas Basing Crisis Illustrated Russian Behavior in the Conduct of Foreign Affairs,” The Eurasian Era, 1, no. 1 (2016): 28-36.
"... whereas U.S. interests were temporary and limited (at least in the main), Russia’s were and remain long-term and comprehensive." -
Michael C. Zeller, “Cooperative Ventures of Russian Civil Society: Three Case Studies from the Memorial Human Rights Group,” Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies 12, no. 1 (2012): 3-12.
"... the key element of a genuinely flourishing civil society is the ability for un‐coerced popular influence to freely act within a pluralistic scene of governmental and non‐governmental structures."
Book chapters
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Michael C. Zeller, “The Austrian far right: historical continuities and the case of the Ulrichsberg commemorations,” chap. 5 in Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe, eds. Katherine Kondor and Mark Littler (London: Routledge, 2023), doi:
10.4324/9781003256892-8"The branches of Austria’s far right are many and varied, stretching from attitudes and criminal activity to movement actors and to one of Europe’s largest radical right parties – but many of these branches share common roots." -
Zsuzsanna Vidra and Michael C. Zeller, “Hungary,” chap. 12 in Routledge Handbook of Violent Extremism and Resilience, eds. Richard McNeil-Willson and Anna Triandafyllidou (London: Routledge, 2023), doi:
10.4324/9781003267102-14"Hungarian state actors have no impactful counter-extremism strategy. Laws and policies meant to curtail extremism, though enacted, are judicially interpreted with a tolerant regard for the far-right and seldom applied by law enforcement agencies. What is more, since 2010 the illiberal regime has both fostered the far-right in the public sphere and hindered the efforts of civil society actors to implement counter-extremism projects and programmes." -
Michael C. Zeller and Jana Hrckova, “Poland,” chap. 13 in Routledge Handbook of Violent Extremism and Resilience, eds. Richard McNeil-Willson and Anna Triandafyllidou (London: Routledge, 2023), doi:
10.4324/9781003267102-15"Poland ... a country gripped by illiberalisation, both spurred by and providing further encouragement of radical and extremist actors, but also possessed of sources of social resilience." -
Michael C. Zeller, “How to Laugh Away the Far-Right: Lessons from Germany,” in The Radical Right During Crisis, ed. Eviane Leidig (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2021).
"The tactics employed by the Apfelfront activists, like the fun-fighters before them, attempt to undermine their targets with ridicule." -
Michael C. Zeller, “COVID-19 and the Pause of Far-Right Demonstrations in Germany,” in Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Radical Right, eds. Tamir Bar-On and Bàrbara Molas (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2020).
"The restoration of normal circumstances of pub- lic life and activity in public space will surely include renewed far-right demonstration activity. Though it may effect a pause, COVID-19 is not likely to deter the far right from their Demonstrationspolitik."