The Impact of the French National Front on the French Political System

Abstract

It appears that the least examined aspect of the emergence of the radical right during the past twenty years is its impact on the political system. Most analysts have focused on the causal aspects of the emergence of the radical right, patterns of support for these parties, their ideological bases, and the comparison of these parties across Europe. I will first develop an approach to understanding impact and then analyze it in some detail in the context of a pattern of party development. I will look first at the impact of electoral breakthrough, then the impact of organizational development, then policymaking and policy, and finally the impact of party success on its own evolution. Although each of these aspects of party development has been examined and analyzed in somewhat different ways, my objective here is to find a way to understand impact in relation to the party system, as well as the larger political system.