Customer Reviews

Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front

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The French have long adorded and held with esteem all things French ! Their view of hstory has and remains, 'What Was...IS' ! Thus, it is without wonderment that Jean-Marie Le Pen and his Natonal Front have masterfully seized upon the very essence of prevalent cultural fabrics within the French societal landscape to develop into what now catapults the Natinal Front into a marketable contendor for national power. To note: Declair rightly points out the various factors and situations in play that made Le Pen's rise inevitable and to his credit Declair has written a top-rated insight for all persons interested into the background and mind of what is now France's most exciting politcal personality, ushering in perhaps the new wave of mainstream Euro-Politics !

This book is a study of the French National Front since its creation in 1972. Unemployment, reaching more than 10% in 1984 (and never falling since), has constantly fuelled the Front's vote. Indeed, it first came to prominence in 1984, winning 10.95% of the total vote in the elections to the European Parliament - paradoxically, a success in a foreign assembly! Front leaders noted that the EU system of proportional representation was the most important factor in their success. Ever since 1984, the European Parliament has been the key forum for those organising trans-European cooperation among the extreme right.

In the early 1990s, in all the members the European Union, membership and the preparations for the euro, twin threats to national independence and sovereignty, upset more and more people. These preparations included cuts in unemployment (and other) benefits, increased medical costs, reductions in holidays, and less job security. Between 1989 and 1994, a huge number of people began to oppose the EU across Europe: in France support fell by 18%. In the 1980s, the Front had been pro-EU and pro-euro (showing how false was its patriotism). Now, opportunistically, it started to follow the anti-EU tide.

Actually, the Front's neo-liberal economic programme is the centre of its doctrine, not its purported nationalism; it is pro-employer, anti-trade union, pro-privatisation. The Front is anticommunist because its members mistakenly think that communism is not patriotic. National self-respect does not depend on overseas possessions but on the struggles, achievements and skills of the nation itself. However, the purist attitudes of the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party on the matters of immigration and asylum have played into the Front's hands.

DeClair ends his book dramatically by writing "Ominously, the future does indeed belong to the National Front." He then had to write an afterword, because in January this year, the Front wrecked itself by splitting!

This book was not only informative, but very educational. The guy from Harvard must have had some kind bias against the subject in which the book referred. If he did not find it useful I don't think he thouroughly read the book.

Absolutely the most informative and timely book written on this subject. A must read for any Political Science Majors. An up-close and engrossing look at the French National Front.

This book deals with a topic that it very interesting to those who study foreign relations, though the author paints a picture that is hard to digest. I am a college student attending Harvard, and I was told to choose a topic for review. This topic would eventually lead to a paper which would ultimately lead to my final grade. I chose to research comparative governments and their political parties. I came across this book on Amazon.com and thought immediately that it would provide perfect information for my paper. As I began reading the book, (mind you, reading as well as politics are passions of mine), I found myself nauseatingly bored to tears. It took every bit of strength I had to finish the book, but I did. In the end, I never used the information in "Politics on the Fringe" in my final draft. And I'm certainly glad that I didn't, because my A paper may have turned into a D for DULL!!!