ABSTRACT
Throughout Part I, it has been argued in a qualified fashion that French politics during the 1980s and 1990s were less conflict-dominated than during any other period since 1945. In order to avoid temptations to oversimplify, however, it is necessary to temper this argument further. First, it should not be thought that, in countries where politics have long been more centre-oriented, or consensual, this indicated a complete absence of political and social conflict. This is clearly not the case. If we take Britain, West Germany or Sweden, for instance, despite many years of relatively moderate parliamentary politics in the post-war period, 24 there have sometimes been long and bitter industrial conflicts which have in some cases even brought down governments. It is a question of degree. Whereas in countries of more moderate politics, overt, national-level conflict has been relatively rare and large parties of fundamental protest have often been absent, for a long time in France these factors were a way of political life. We have already seen how the rise of the Front national, with its protest orientation and antistatus,, quo ideology, is itself a strong reminder of political times past and represents a counter-tendency to the general direction in which politics have been moving.
