Uwe Backes (born 2 February 1960 in Greimerath) is a German political scientist and specialist in political extremism. He is a professor at the Technical University Dresden and together with Eckhard Jesse the editor of the Yearbook on Extremism and Democracy [de] and Series on Extremism and Democracy [de]. Backes is an adherent of the classical German theory of extremism (Extremismustheorie^[1]) that postulates that the extreme right and the extreme left have much in common in their opposition to liberty and democracy.