THE POLITICAL USES OF XENOPHOBIA IN ENGLAND, FRANCE AND GERMANY

This article centres upon the nature of xenophobia as it relates to el ectoral politics, addressing in particular how and why 'race politics' were employed in three large West European states at the end of the C old War. Rather than looking only at extremist fringe groups, this art icle focuses on party competition as a driving force. Discussing devel opments since 1979, a strict comparison of party strategies employed i n Britain, France and Germany is undertaken, describing the ups and do wns of xenophobia as a public issue largely as a product of campaign s trategies of the established conservative parties, who used the issue as a 'weapon of last resort'. The handling of the issue by actors in t he three countries is compared; this resulted in the success of the Fr ont National in France and the Republikaner in Germany, and diverging development in Britain. It is also stressed that the emergence of 'rac e' and migration as public issues are largely independent of the actua l numbers of immigrants, which differed fundamentally between the thre e countries.