Introduction

Co-optation of radical-right issues has operated quite successfully in the British case (in the 1970s), somewhat less so in the German case (in the 1980s), and not at all in the French case (in the 1990s) … By altering the issue agenda, co-optation also alters the terms of conflict among political parties, and, potentially, the electoral cleavages and divisions … However, the question of why and how co-optation ‘works’ in some cases and not in other remains to be analysed.