ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the questions of the conditions and the mechanisms for the resurgence of the radical left, building upon the knowledge that the previous chapters have provided on the variety of radical left politics, as well as on the potential bridging of radical left activities in the streets and in the institutions. The subject of the radical left has largely constituted a silence in social movement studies, which have concentrated instead on the New Social Movements. In Europe, as well, neoliberalism and its crisis have transformed the cleavage structure that was at the basis of the domestic party systems with the emergence of a precarization of labour as well as a proletarization of the middle classes. Movements and movement parties emerged on the radical left especially when new grievances/interests/identities were not represented in the party system, where the crisis progressed more quickly, and where it more radically challenged everyday life.
