Extreme vote in France and globalization
Introduction and hypothesis
In my essay I would like to deal with a new form of popular protest in France, i.e. voting for extreme parties (far-right and far-left parties). I will argue in my essay that the new importance of these parties is mainly due to globalization and its characteristics. This topic is relevant because for fifteen years this revival of the extremes has raised a lot of questions in the French Medias and in the sphere of the French intellectuals. I will combine here this topic with the thematic of our course, i.e. globalization and identity:
Are individuals who vote for extreme parties in France expressing a rejection of globalization?
After the first round of the 2012 presidential elections in France, the FN (Le Front National, the main french nationalist party) confirms the success that the polls had announced before. With about 18% of the votes in the first round FN became the 3rd political party of France (Le Monde, 2012).
In contrast to that, the far-left confirms its strong position: the FG (Le Front de Gauche) became the 4th political party of France with 11% of votes (Le Monde, 2012).
The high score of the extreme right is not a new phenomenon nor an episodic one for twenty years. But the appearance of the far-left, caused by the economic and financial crisis of 2008, illustrates the revival of a radical left who disappeared from the French political system since the collapse of the USSR and the transition to a Post-Fordist economy in the 80s.
Thus, this is how my hypothesis is formulated:
The extreme vote is the mirror of a social cleavage in the French society between the "winners" and the "losers" of globalization, between those who benefit from it and those...