The Interview Method in Comparative Politics: The Process of Interviewing Far-Right Actors

Abstract

Interviews have been the basis for some of the greatest insights in many disciplines but have largely been on the backstage of comparative political inquiry. I first rely on bibliometric data to show the limited use of interviews in research published by major journals in the past 30 years. I then focus on how interviews are used to study a hard-to-reach population: far-right actors. Using the extant literature and reflecting on my field experience with far-right leaders and functionaries, I examine in detail how interviews help investigate this phenomenon; I analyse challenges related to interview access, rapport, analysis and ethics and offer remedies. I argue that comparativists using interviews need to address these challenges by explicating and reflecting on the process through which they collect interview data rather than solely focusing on the data itself. I am thankful to Tim Bale and Vasiliki Georgiadou for the original encouragement to write about field interviews with far-right actors and to the A.G. Leventis Foundation for funding this research. I am grateful to Nancy Bermeo, Iosif Kovras, Iasonas Lamprianou and the Princeton Hellenic Studies ‘Social Science’ Research Community for comments on drafts and presentations. Iasonas Lamprianou helped me analyse the bibliometric data and Olga Demetriou read and commented on many drafts.