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Dissertation on radical rightist populism in France

April 24, 2002

In the last two decades, a new family of parties has emerged in western European politics, radical rightist populism. Radical rightist populist parties have grown and scored substantial successes in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Austria. These parties promulgate a political message rooted in ethnic nationalism, xenophobia, and a populist critique of the political establishment.

Jens Rydgren, who will defend his dissertation on the emergence of the French Front National at the Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Sweden, argues that this wave of modern, parliamentarian, rightist radicalism first appeared in France during the first half of the 1980s. Front National was the first ideologically sophisticated radical-right populist party to attract voters and as such served as an example and source of inspiration for similar parties then emerging in other parts of Europe. The party was established as early as 1972, but it did not manage to attract more than a marginal portion of the electorate until the early 1980s. In the local elections of 1983, Front National succeeded in getting the traditional right to join in an election coalition, which resulted in their being represented in the municipal assembly. The breakthrough at the national level occurred in the 1984 European election, in which the party totaled more than 11 percent. Since then the Front National has reached between 10 and 15 percent of the vote in all national elections except the 1999 European Parliament election, just after Front National had undergone a split. As this spring's presidential election shows, with Le Pen breaking through the 15 percent ceiling, this seems to have been a temporary decline.

How can the emergence of Front National be understood?
Jens Rydgren maintains that the growth of Front National can be explained by the appearance of niches in French political space. There was a demand for ethnic nationalism and criticism of immigration. This demand emerged for a number of reasons. A major factor was the fact that the dimension of economic conflict declined in significance. Instead, there was a greater interest in socio-cultural issues. This interest developed partly as a result of the economic downturn and high levels of unemployment. For various reasons, issues relating to immigration and unemployment had also become politicized by the late 1970s and early 1980s. This politicization was initiated by other political players, but it provided scope for the Front National to become visible in the debate. Alongside this, growing distrust of politicians also played a major role. More and more voters felt that there was no substantive difference between the established political parties. At the same time, fewer and fewer voters identified with the political parties, meaning that the electorate was more volatile. This released resources for Front National and at the same time it made it possible to fan the flames of the distrust of politicians and thereby win the protest vote. The analysis of Front National's voters presented in the dissertation indicates that it was this protest vote that constituted the most important dimension from 1984 to 1988, but that "ideological" or "issue-related" voting became the prime factor as of the 1988 presidential election. During the 1990s those who voted for Front National--or for Le Pen in the presidential elections--did so mainly because they shared the party's stances and political ideas. Opposition to immigrants has particularly typified Front National supporters.

VetenskapsrÃ�det (The Swedish Research Council)

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