The support for thefront national:Analyses and findings

This article reviews the literature ‐ most but not all of it in French ‐ on the mass support given in France during the 1980s to the Front National led by Jean‐Marie Le Pen. Its principal focuses are the locational concentrations of this support, its social and demographic characteristics, and its former political‐party allegiances. Part of the presentation is expositional but the article also contains critiques of some of the methodological approaches that have been adopted by French social science in analysing the Le Pen phenomenon.