The Resurgence of the Radical Right in France : From Boulangisme to the Front National

This book attempts to account for the resurgence of significant political movements of the Radical Right in France since the establishment of democracy in the country at the end of the nineteenth century. Taking to task historical treatments of the Radical Right for their failure to specify the conditions and dynamics attending its emergence, and faulting the historical myopia of contemporary electoral and party-centric accounts of the Front National, it tries to explain the Radical Right's continuing appeal by relating the socio-structural outcomes of the processes of industrialization and democratization in France to the persistence of economically and politically illiberal groups within French society. Specifically, the book argues that, as a result of the country's protracted and uneven experience of industrialization and urbanization, significant pre- or anti-modern social classes, which remained functionally ill-adapted and culturally ill-disposed to industrial capitalism and liberal democracy, subsisted late into its development. Defining The Radical Right In France, Past And Present -- The Class-cultural Roots Of The Radical Right : Structures And Expressions Of Independance -- The Age Of Contentment : Petits Independants During The Belle Epoque -- The Fateful Transition : Petits Independants In The Interwar Period -- The Eclipse Of The Petty Producer Republic : Petits Independants From Vichy Through The Fourth Republic -- The Age Of Decline : Petits Independants Under The Fifth Republic -- Epilogue : French Workers In Crisis And The Entrenchment Of The Front National -- The Radical Right In France In Comparative Perspective. Gabriel Goodliffe. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book accounts for the resurgence of significant political movements of the Radical Right in France since the establishment of democracy in the country at the end of the nineteenth century. Recounts the resurgence of significant political movements of the Radical Right in France since the end of the nineteenth century