Mr. Mitterand & Mr Reagan

...The French Communists got their well-deserved comeuppance from the voters this year--and suffered especially at their base...

...But unless Mr...

...TENSION BETWEEN CHURCH & STATE pening old wounds Yugoslavia RAMET T HE RELATIONS between the Catholic church and the Communist regime in Yugoslavia have taken a sharp turn for the worse since Tito's death, despite the apparent absence of substantive issues in contention...

...Mitterand E.I...

...Reagan's program is disputed in its specifics by a variety of Wall Street types, but on balance, there is unanimity in that crowd about the desirability to cut taxes and cd programs...

...And the fact is that both Reagan and Mitterand only barely improved on the vote of their party in the previous election...

...Mitterand has already given assurances that existing contracts will be honored...

...Generally, Key said, voters aren't voting about what they want in the future...

...They have already lost lots of ground, and if Mr...

...successful socialism could lead to a withering away of the Communist party...

...His newly named Prime Minister, Pierre Mauroy, is also a genuine pol who has frequently done battle with the Communists, and he could help...

...Governing any Western country these days is difficult...

...Reagan does not have to worry about a flight of capital to Switzerland...

...Reagan got fifty-one percent of the vote, only three points more than Gerald Ford won in 1976...

...Yet, despite passage of a rather controversial law on religious communities in 1978, which the Croatian Catholic church actively sought to amend, church-state relations had seemed to have returned to normal and leaders in both hierarchies beI PEDRO RAMET, a consultant to the Rand Corporation, spent the 1979-1980 academic year in Yugoslavia...

...Yet decentralization is by no means an inherently conservative theme, and it will be part of Mr...

...The peace was ostensibly broken in late January of this year when Jakov Blazevic, president of Yugoslavia's Republic of Croatia, opened fire on present members of the Croatian Catholic hierarchy for having collaborated with fascist Ustase forces during the Second World War...

...Mitterand won, the French stock market dropped by twenty percent...

...Slobodna Dalmacija, a Croatian newspaper published in Split, soon picked up the refrain and detailed various atrocities of which Stepinac was said to have been guilty...

...For another, it has opted for greater decentralization...

...And so he has spent a lot of his time reassuring the forces of t.he well-to-do he vanquished in the election that life won't be so bad for them after all...

...The Swedes, while trying to be all things to all people, have refused to suggest specific norms for interpersonal relationships other than the general guidelines of sexual equality, respect for others, and personal honesty...

...The question being asked in these ex-colonial countries is whether Mr...

...American liberals have often associated decentralization with "states' rights," always a cover for the maintenance of power in the hands of Southern oligarchies...

...The landslide quality of Reagan's victory came from John Anderson's vote...

...Mitterand ended twenty-three years of centerrigh t government in France, and in the process did great Commonweal: 366 damage to the French Communist party vote...

...they're making a judgment about what went on in the past...

...Reagan's victory alongside that of Margaret Thatcher's Tories in Britain...

...DIONNE, JR., a previous contributor, is apolitical reporter for the New York Times...

...4t" I have suggested specific norms with respect to social legis- ! lation, sex education, abortion, birth control, sexual relation- i ships, marriage, and the family...

...Creative efforts must be directed at this difficult issue, perhaps doomed to be a compromise but nonetheless necessary...

...Yet this is the area in which many people need the most direction and where the churches can provide effective leadership...

...I A VICTORY INTO A MANDATE...

...Mitterand, like all left reformers, does...

...standards and styles of behavior, but this does not mean that all such standards and styles are of equal worth or even valid for most people...

...Yet despite the vast ideological gulf that separates them, both Mr...

...He also blasted alleged attempts to rehabilitate the late Cardinal Stepinac, whom the Yugoslav Communists had sent to prison in 1946 for treasonous collaboration with the Ustase...

...Indeed, after Cvijetin Mijatovic, Yugoslavia's ceremonial head of state, visited Pope John Paul II in the Vatican in December, it was widely expected that relations would improve further...

...Governing France is often more difficult...

...My intention is to convince, not to defeat," he said in his inaugural address...

...There was only one victor on May 10--hope...

...But he has two factors working against him that Mr...

...I On one issue, Mr...

...It is important, though, that Mr...

...Thus, Ronald Reagan's victory, which was largely a rejection of Jimmy Carter's record in office, was said to herald a great move to the right...

...DIONNE Ill...

...Mitterand's rhetoric has combined two noble sentiments: opposition to Soviet expansionism and sympathy for the Third World--and in particular for those movements in, the Third World seeking economic reform...

...Mitterand will lay down a challenge to left movements elsewhere--and serve as a counter-example to those who say that only conservatives are really on Israel's side...

...It is likely that Mr...

...Mitterand would also have a shot at social transformation, albeit of a different kind...

...But Mr...

...There is a spiritual dimension to sexuality which, if absent, renders interpersonal relationships cheap, manipulative, and even degrading...

...Reagan has done this not by defending attacks on particular programs, but by saying that his package of cuts is necessary for economic recovery...

...The simple fact is that it is easier to govern for and with the economic powers that be than without them and against them...

...It is precisely at this point of specific norms that the Swedes have failed, I hastily admit that the proposal of specific norms to guide concrete forms of sexual expression is an extremely problematic task...

...the prospects for de-funding the left simply wouldn't be there...

...Intercourse is at its best an expression of love and fidelity...

...Mitterand owe their victories to much the same factors: high inflation, high unemployment, and unpopular incumbents...

...Mitterand has long had strong sympathies for Israel, and Israel's progressive supporters were offered the incongruously pleasant sound the day after the French election of Menachem Begin welcoming a socialist victory...

...And the dimension of permanence or at the very least the aspiration toward permanence is a crucial aspect of any genuine sexual relationship...

...This cabinet is likely to help Mitterand with the electorate, but French politics has been polarized for so long that an appeal to politicians of the center could prove difficult...

...Among the former colonial powers, France has been exceptionally successful in maintaining economic and political influence with its former colonies--old colonialism in new bottles, say France's critics...

...Mitterand would prefer a coalition with the political center, and the cabinet he has appointed reflects concessions to centrists and left-wing Gaullists...

...So you might think that Mr...

...His views on the Third World will, quite obviously, clash with Mr...

...But Mr...

...No doubt Mr...

...Probably no one has less of an interest in a successful Socialist government than the Communists...

...At the very least, the Mitterand victory will make it harder for conservative analysts to point to a "worldwide conservative trend," as they have enjoyed doing by billboarding Mr...

...Yet unless one is really willing to opt for a dangerous concentration of all economic resources in the state, private capital will always be a factor...

...Mitterand's rhetoric on these issues will come where French interests are most directly affected...

...Reagan was elected, the stock market soared...

...Stockman...

...19 June 1981:367 Mitterand, who has always been regarded as a crafty politician, will be putting his craftiness to the ultimate test...

...The former can be welcomed by the United States, though just what it will mean in practice is less clear...

...From the point of view of other left movements, and notably those in the United States, the platform assembled by Mr...

...Mr...

...It is not r easy in a pluralistic society to steer a course between the libertarians who advocate complete equality of lifestyles and 9 authoritarians who are sure that there is only one correct way in 1 all matters affecting sexual attitudes and behavior...

...Mitterand intends to change French policy to their advantage...

...And governing while seeking substantial changes--and having to do battle with Communists and wary holders of capital at the same time--can only be called, at best, not impossible...

...Progressives will no doubt be eager to make of Mitterand's victory what conservatives have tried to do with Ronald Reagan's...

...Tired of the Communists' opportunistic attacks on the Socialists, traditional Communist voters defected in large numbers, especially in their old bastions, the working-class suburbs around Paris...

...Then again, "Liberty, equality, and fraternity" has always been a tough standard, but one could do worse...

...On the other hand, electoral victories, even squeakers, can be used for ideological purposes, especially if people are particularly unhappy with the governments they've just voted out of office...

...The growing acrimony may reflect a renewed struggle between church and state in this country of twenty-two million (in which perhaps six million are Catholics...

...The Communists have thrived when the right was firmly in power and they maintained their ghetto of protest on the left...

...Reagan's...

...As for Israel, the biggest test will be on arms sales to Arab countries...

...Mitterand intends to redistribute...

...Moreover, Mr...

...It is that most elections are about throwing the bums out, or keeping them in...

...In our society, permanence means one-to-one faithful sexual relationships usually geared toward ultimate expression in marriage...

...A failure of nerve at this juncture will only make our elaborate theories useless and ludicrous...

...Arms are a major export for France, and the arms issue may constitute an acid test of Mitterand's international principles...

...If things seem to be going well--the inflation rate and the unemployI I Ill I E.J...

...Mitterand's job to prove it...

...Facts are stubborn," Pierre Mauroy once said...

...Can those who represent the middle ground agree on certain specific norms for sexual morality and interpersonal relationships or are we fated to engage in the kind of infighting that will continue to result in a field day for the extremists on both sides of this perplexing moral and social dilemma...

...I realize that my recommendations will be considered too vague and that I am in for a sound 9 4 scolding from proponents on both sides of each issue...

...Mitterand's Socialists offers something to look into...

...Moreover, not only has Mitterand won, but so did, among others, Ren6 Levesque's social democratic Parti Quebecois...

...I worry about the casual attitude toward sex these days that puts it in the category of eating and urinating, as the simple expression of a necessary bodily function...

...When Mr...

...Howard Phillips, head of the Conservative Caucus, recently presented David Stockman with an award, saying that without Mr...

...This was always a popular cause on the New Left, and the French Socialists have been influenced by some New Left ideas...

...Mitterand's party wins an unlikely majority in the legislative elections, he will have to rely on Communist votes to govern...

...Reagan does not have to deal with: capitalists and Communists...

...And he certainly has an opportunity...

...Valery Giscard D'Estaing was widely disliked for imperiousness, Jimmy Carter for bumbring...

...Who am I to decide what is best for most people...

...Capital flight could crush French hopes for a form of socialism that reconciles social change with liberty...

...It has been left to the usually frank New Right to explain what these cuts are really about...

...Instead, things took a sudden turn for the worse...

...This obvious rule is often ignored after the polls close, especially by the victors, who seek in the election returns a mandate for whatever ideological course they wish to pursue...

...But these guidelines, however noble, can be rationalized to cover onenight stands and close encounters of different kinds...

...On the other hand, democratic socialists are often more convincing anti-Communists than are conservatives...

...Mitterand can show that a reformist, libertarian socialism can work, the defections could become greater...

...The Comrhunists want seats in Mitterand's government after the legislative elections this month, and will probably get some minor posts...

...Can even a government make such a judgment for its citizenry...

...By the end of February, Jure Bilic, Commonweal: 368...

...Mitterand also has to worry about the French Communist party, whose leadership constitutes one of the most pro-Soviet collection of politicians this side of the Kremlin...

...For one thing, the French Socialists have placed great stress on personal liberties, and on the need to free French state-owned television from the partisan and bureaucratic weight of the government...

...Now it looks more like a worldwide Anglo-Saxon conservative trend, and anyway Thatcher is in trouble...

...Mitterand, the architect of France's revived Socialist party, won a startling election victory running on a platform substantially stronger than one often finds with social democratic parties elsewhere...

...However, the major tests for Mr...

...Enter Francois Mitterand...

...The great political scientist, V. O. Key, put it more elegantly, referring to elections as retrospective referenda on the performance of the party in office...

...May it become the b~st-shared asset in France...

...As far as foreign policy goes, Mr...

...When times are bad, incumbents usually lose...

...Mitterand also improved on his 1974 vote by three points, from forty-nine to fifty-two percent...

...meat rate always seem to be the most relevant measures here--the voters usually reelect a government...

...It would be hard, for example, to argue that cutting legal services for the poor will in itself have a bracing impact on capital investment or inflation...

...Although these are norms for most people, for others the minimal norm should be one-toll CAN THE LEFT TURN ,4 one faithful relationships which promote mutual caring and 6 equality...

...President Reagan has certainly made effective use of his victory and seems, so far, to have brought public opinion along behind his stoutly conservative program...

...That, perhaps, is a sign of a worldwide Gallic trend to the left...

...haved as if there were no important frictions...

...My encounter with the Swedish experience of recent years has convinced me that the "to each her/his own" approach to sexuality leads to serious adverse consequences and the "contrary to God's law" prohibition falls on deaf ears...

...Both marriage and the nuclear family are presently deemed essential to the healthy stable society currently envisioned by most Americans...

...T HE OLDEST RULE about elections is also the most widely ignored, especially by the winning side...

...when Mr...

...No one ever said democratic socialism would be easy...

...The Communist leaders, who have been accustomed to switching sides quickly ever since the HitlerStalin pact, then saw their mistake and rallied to Mitterand after the failure of their candidate, Georges Marchais, in the first round of voting...

...Americans are far less ~. ready than Swedes to give to their government the power to enact laws, for example, that promote sex education in the public schools and prohibit certain kinds of pornography...

...Mitterand's opponents to his left are already suggesting with a chuckle-that hope is about the only asset Mr...

...Reagan and Mr...

...But of course his concern about the flight of capital is very much to the point...