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

by Edward DeClair

(Author)
Key Phrases: party life cycle, sponsorship signatures, first choice responses, National Front, National Assembly, Political Bureau (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Looking at the history of the Front and using interviews of its members as well as public opinion survey data, this book offers not only a complete picture of the Front's influential role but also further insight into the resurgence of right-wing extremism throughout western societies."--French Book News, March 2000 "DeClair, an American political scientist, provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive study in English [of the French National Front]"--Times Literary Supplement, 30 June, 2000 " ... this is a welcome addition to the current literature on the French extreme Right, offering well-researche perspectives and an insightful re-evaluation of that passe qui ne passe pas."--French History, Vol 15, No. 2, 2001

Product Description
Once a marginal political coalition, the French National Front has become the most high-profile far-right organization in Europe. In Politics on the Fringe Edward G. DeClair provides the first extensive analysis of the Front’s history, from its creation in 1972 and outcast status in the early 1980s to its achievement of broad-based support and show of political strength in the 1997 elections.

Using rare, in-depth interviews with twenty-nine members of the Front elite, as well as public opinion survey data and electoral results, DeClair examines the internal structure of the Front, its political agenda, and its growing influence in France. DeClair shows how the party has dramatically expanded its traditionally narrow core constituency by capitalizing upon anxieties about national identity, immigration, European unification, and rising unemployment. In illustrating how the rhetoric surrounding such topics is key to the Front’s success, DeClair examines the Front’s legacy by detailing the links between the French far-right and similar movements in such countries as Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, and the United States. Finally, Politics on the Fringe offers not only a complete picture of the Front’s increasingly influential role in French partisan politics but also further insight into the resurgence of right-wing extremism throughout western societies in the late twentieth century.

This volume will be of primary importance to political scientists and those engaged with European politics, culture, and history. It will also appeal to those concerned with right-wing populism and political movements.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822322374
• ISBN-13: 978-0822322375
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,624,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What Was...IS" !, April 28, 2002

By	Michael Saint Thomas "sainteberdache" (Anaheim Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front (Paperback)

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 !

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine account of the French right, July 24, 2001

By	William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front (Paperback)

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!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies, and Organization of the French National Front (Paperback)

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.