Articles by Michael Zeller

January 8, 2026

Why democracies ban extremist organisations

Michael Zeller
Many extremist organisations exist and operate in democratic societies. Some get banned by democratic authorities; others don’t. Why? Using data on far-right organisations from Germany, Michael Zeller explains why governments ban only some of the organisations working to undermine Germany’s constitutional democracy
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photograph of Michael Zeller
Michael Zeller
Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München

Michael has co-led funded projects relating to far-right socio-politics, most recently including the European Violent Right-Wing Extremism Monitoring project, grant HOME/2023/OP/0004.

He is a member of the Radicalisation Awareness Network Policy Support, and the European Research Community on Radicalisation.

Michael's research interests include extremism and political violence, social movements, and qualitative research methods.

Personal website

@michaelczeller

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Advancing Political Science
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