EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY-NEW PROBLEMS, NEW PROSPECTS:THE RISE OF THE FRENCH SOCIALIST PARTY
Worms, Jean-Pierre
The resurgence of the French Socialist party first became apparent in the 1973 general election; it was confirmed by the near-victory of its leader, Francois Mitterand, in the 1974 presidential...
...considerably in the months following the 1973 general election...
...Although the social base of the Socialist party now seems to be comparable in strength to that of the Communists, it is nevertheless different in its structure...
...c) discussing and voting on the text of a special "report" on Socialist-Communist relations...
...The test of implementation lies ahead when the French Socialist party will have to prove, in deeds, its ability to blend such "power realism" of method with radicalism of vision...
...Members had been intensely mobilized during the campaign and, encouraged by the results, went about transforming increased public support into increased organizational strength...
...276 the 1974 presidential contest gave the socialists an eight-point lead among the electorate...
...A number of anti-Socialist campaigns were launched, the most violent in autumn 1974, denouncing what the Communists called "antiunitarian" conduct...
...This alliance, named the Federation de la Gauche Democratique et Socialiste (FGDS), presented candidates in the 1967 parliamentary elections with reasonable success...
...This has invariably been the reason why the present majority has refused normal democratic alternation...
...A glimpse at the Socialist party in early 1975 was enough to reveal flaws requiring rapid attention: first, it was a highly heterogeneous group of men and women, most with little theoretical background or political training...
...Although a minority, members with previous political experience made up half of the lower and middle hierarchy and filled practically all top positions...
...Its Leninist concept of the predominance of "the" workers' party over all "conveyor belts" ensures types of control that the Socialist party refuses to consider, regardless of their apparent "efficiency...
...This implies that influence can only be effective if these social organizations recognize that the Socialist party's policies offer the best political vehicle for their demands...
...It wielded great influence over a very large independent union, the F6deration de l'Education Nationale (whose membership covers all levels of education from primary to university and research institutions), as well as in the third largest workers' union, Force Ouvriere (which, however, had become increasingly conservative after the split with the CGT and now has a primarily white-collar membership...
...Neither in France nor abroad is the strength of this conviction doubted...
...The Socialist party's pluralistic concept implies 278 renunciation of any form of direct and manipulative channels of control...
...And not long ago it seemed that Gaullism, with its dash of populism, had crushed any hope of its regeneration...
...Toward Victory VICTORY now seems within reach for the Socialist party at the next parliamentary elections...
...The Socialist party reflected this impulse to a far greater extent than did the Radicaux de Gauche, whose members were still mostly old-timers who had shied away from Servan-Schreiber's style and methods...
...What is their strategy for victory and how, if they achieve victory, do they intend to use it...
...A higher proportion of ex-SFIO members was found at the grass-roots level whereas ex-members of the Convention des Institutions Republicaines, of the PSU, of clubs and social movements were in senior echelons indicating the role they played in the process of renewal...
...Only main contenders remain for the second run, the others standing down in their favor or withdrawing without indicating preference...
...Nevertheless, in this very difficulty lies a great advantage: an absolute obligation to elaborate truly "representative" political options...
...L'union est un combat," was a Communist slogan at the height of controversy with the Socialist party...
...But favorable circumstances and an exceptional personality are not enough to explain the astonishing growth of the Socialist party...
...273 However, this renewal was dampened somewhat by Savary's refusal to end his alliance with Guy Mollet, partly out of a sense of decency toward the man who had stepped down for him, but also because Mollet's support seemed necessary for the preservation of the "old heritage" in the continuing renewal process...
...The party, therefore, concentrated all its energy on instructing members in order to create somewhat more homogeneous attitudes, behavior, and expectations, and on clarifying the relationship between socialist identity and the "union of the left" strategy...
...However, the new generation of 19- to 25year-olds, whether students or not, seemed to remain uninterested in politics...
...The alliance is not, therefore, considered to be sacred and everlasting: it is the result of a conscious choice in a specific historical context, always subject to reassessment...
...However, the decision had ultimately been his own: he wished to be a candidate wielding wider appeal not restricted to partisan loyalties...
...leaders of non-Communistcontrolled unions and social organizations that had hitherto remained independent or aloof from partisan political action...
...Mitterrand obtained 49.3 percent of the vote...
...And with the 1969 presidential election, in which the Socialist candidate received little more than 5 percent of the vote, the bell seemed to have tolled for a democratic socialist party in France...
...This will be the first time that the communications 279 channels set up between the Socialist party and its social base will be put to the test...
...Of the 150,000 members in 1975, the majority were eager young people taking their first political step...
...If the united left was to be successful in acquiring new allegiance in the electorate, it was clear that the Socialist party rather than the Communist party would benefit...
...During the 1973 parliamentary campaign it argued that the Assembly must be of the same political hue as the President...
...The figure also included the vote for various small leftist parties, principally Michel Rocard's PSU (Parti Socialiste Unifie), which was critical of the alliance but never failed to step down in its favor before the second ballot.' Arithmetically, the situation contained no mystery...
...1971-74: Building a new party...
...At first glance, this phenomenon may seem to be an anomaly both in France and in Europe at large...
...At the same time, the Socialist party clearly stipulated that this does not exclude, but on the contrary necessitates, permanent competition and tension between the allies...
...Every opinion poll over the last two years has shown the depth of the personal loyalty he fosters among workers, including Communist voters...
...Instead, let us elaborate a detailed program of government for the normal five-year span of a legislature, and negotiate with the Cornmunist party for a common government program on this basis...
...Yet even at the beginning of the renewal process, the Socialist party was not unarmed in the contest for a strong social base...
...similarly, in the 1974 presidential campaign it argued that the President must be of the same political hue as the Assembly...
...Thus it became clear, as Mitterrand said when he heard the final results: with "le monde de la jeunesse et le monde du travail" on its side, "la victoire gauche est inefluctable...
...On the basis of those texts it then launched a vast educational program for members as a priority for 197576...
...Mitterrand's strategy proved extremely successful...
...This spectacular rise and new, apparent stability of the French Socialist party indeed may be considered one of the major political phenomena in recent West European history...
...Subsequently, participants of the Assises, who were not yet members, joined the ranks of the Socialist party at its regular congress in January 1975...
...As the campaign gathered velocity, as crowds and enthusiasm grew, and as the polls revealed the steady rise in favor of Mitterrand, victory seemed possible...
...A major factor, certainly, is the character of its leader, Francois Mitterrand: his profound political shrewdness, his deep republicanism, his capacity to touch popular sensibility and to establish a current of direct representation overriding all other loyalties (including Communist loyalties...
...But it was not only a "socialist campaign...
...Why would people turn to socialists for a middle-of-the-road policy, rather than to a center party that publicly and sincerely advocated such a policy...
...This meeting (les Assises du Socialisme) was held three months after the presidential election and comprised three delegations: one from the Socialist party, one from a section of the PSU led by Michel Roccard, one composed of leaders from various social organizations and from the CFDT (the second largest workers' union— successor to the Union of Christian Workers...
...Building the Party, 1971 - 1974 UNIFICATION took place in 1971 at the Epinay Congress, which most observers consider to be the birth date of the new Socialist party...
...He was, therefore, the only candidate of the left and the candidate of the union of the left ("candidat unique de la gauche" and "candidat d'union de la gauche...
...The Communist and Socialist parties each received about 20 percent of the national vote...
...The Communists also strongly resented the growing receptivity to the Socialist party within the working class, which the Communists were accustomed by force of habit and Leninist theory to consider their own preserve...
...The 1973 argument is already being aired for 1978...
...However, Mitterrand's statement that he sees no reason for Giscard's departure should the left win, and Giscard's statement that he intends to complete the presidential term whatever the result of the 1978 election, may facilitate a solution...
...Two conditions had to be fulfilled for this 275 to become reality: complete reunification of the democratic socialist forces and clarification of the new Socialist party's identity...
...In other words, the strength of the present Socialist party lies, to a great extent, in a merger of the old and the new— the successful attempt of the new to revitalize and integrate the old...
...second, many of its rankandfile rode the "dynamique unitaire" wave with a touch of naive ecstasy...
...Savary was more circumspect...
...Such a balance, however, does not stem only from electoral and organizational strength...
...1975-76: Consolidating for victory...
...Experts have been at work since the 1974 presidential campaign, and many in the present leadership will undoubtedly be ready to serve a new democratically elected government...
...no benefit can be derived from highlighting disagreements now...
...Such criticism could create doubt or even guilt among the new members of the party who had joined under the impetus of the "union-of-the-left" strategy...
...Laying the Foundation IN 1969, THE SFIO (Section Francaise de l'Internationale Ouvriere)—the old Socialist party, heir to Jean Jaures and Leon Blum— was in pitiful disarray...
...Francois Mitterrand had been "invited" to stand separately and independently for the three components of the alliance...
...He received an overwhelming majority among the working class and the young, with a comfortable lead in the under-50 age group and the salaried population in general...
...but rather in preparing technically sound and politically credible leftwing alternatives to Gaullist policies...
...Yet the Socialists obtained from the Communist party precise and public assurances on this point, and a commitment to existing alliances and European institutions was written into the 1973 Common Program...
...The party also has won many new cities in the 1977 municipal contest, and now most observers agree that it very likely will lead the united left coalition to victory in the 1978 general parliamentary election...
...Its ultimate fate does not preoccupy the Socialists: it could remain a conflicted but solid alliance...
...The "conveyor-belt" theory is, indeed, a direct result of the Communist party's monolithic concept of its social base...
...Hence it was necessary to explore a possible entente with the Communist party...
...This, Savary reasoned, had been the basic cause for socialist decline: this had put the Socialist party into a position where it could not offer a credible alternative, neither radical nor reformist...
...The Socialist party has not discussed any of these hypotheses: the party considers it enough to be in such a position of strength as to maintain freedom of choice at all times...
...But why not, one might ask, stop at the most moderate fringe of the alliance and vote for the Radicaux de Gauche...
...The Scandinavian socialist tradition, undoubtedly the most successful experiment in democratic socialism in the West, with its impressive record in reducing material, social, and cultural inequalities among classes, seems to have great difficulty in deciding where to go next...
...Then came May 1968, which caught everybody off-guard...
...the result was a "constat de convergences et de divergences," which was to be submitted to the 1971 Congress in order to determine whether there was adequate ground for proceeding toward an alliance with the Communists...
...Members of the directorate have been designated to cover all fields of government action and to prepare technically sound proposals...
...The very process of this growth must be analyzed in greater detail, for it offers a rare example of the complete regeneration of a very old party in its organizational structure at national and local levels, in its national and local elected representation, its rank-and-file membership and popular base, its ideology, strategy, and governmental platform—a regeneration resulting in some inevitable wear and tear but in minimal waste of what remained valid of the old structure and political heritage...
...Savary's first aim as the new organizational head of the Socialists was to rebuild the party with three elements in mind: a clear political line...
...Few stressed the nature of the political choice made in the process...
...Should not such an experiment be considered with the utmost interest by all faced with a similar challenge...
...he wished to resume discussions on fundamental issues that still divided Socialists and Communists, and then to negotiate an alliance explicitly stating agreements and disagreements...
...it could lead to a reunification of the Socialist movement if the fundamental aims, attitudes, and conduct of the Communists were to evolve...
...Anxious to preserve the historical heritage of French socialism and to safeguard the considerable Socialist strongholds in local governments and in the unions, its leader Guy Mollet did the unthinkable: he resigned in favor of a "renegade," Alain Savary...
...Yet nothing can persuade the United States and other democracies to consider a French socialist experiment with benevolence if they choose not do to so—nothing, that is, other than self-interest...
...It is necessary to note these well-known factors in order to stress that the lack of credibility of the Communist and "reformist" alternatives undoubtedly gave the Socialist party an opportunity to present itself as the only plausible vehicle for change...
...Gaullism hastened the growth of these "clubs," most of them associations not directly engaged in normal political action (electioneering, forming local chapters, etc...
...A poster exhibited throughout France during the 1973 general election illustrated that attitude: it pictured Marchais flaunting a hungry grin directly above a worried-looking Mitterrand, with the caption: "WHO WILL EAT WHOM...
...In Italy and in Spain, the two Latin countries that, like France, have strong socialist traditions, the socialist parties have great difficulty in maintaining a modicum of political credibility in the face of the extraordinary rise of a new type of Communist party, successful in its claim to be the vehicle for radical democratic change...
...They define a free, open, pluralistic socialism, aiming at the expansion of self-governmental structures and processes...
...q 280...
...Aiming at selfgovernment" signifies the progressive development of institutional structures that permit control and decision-making by those most directly affected—whether in economic, social, or cultural fields...
...The situation of the French Socialist party has no parallel in Europe (with the possible exception of the Socialists in Portugal, despite obvious differences...
...The main problem, therefore, is not one of "competence" but rather of the new government's capacity to face relatively unpredictable difficulties both within and outside France...
...The first is the French Constitution, which provides no easy means of resolving conflicts between the President of the Republic and an opposing majority in the National Assembly...
...These are not opportunistic stands but the result of an assessment of the necessary international guarantees required for the development of an autonomous socialist experiment in the West...
...At the time, the majority of commentators focused on the tactical alliances inside the party, which had produced Mitterrand's victory...
...nor have they, like Berlinguer, ever considered the Atlantic Alliance as proper protection for a government with Communist participation...
...As to the clarification of its conception of the alliance with the Communist party, the Socialist party reasserted its fundamental strategic choice, which has not wavered since 1969 and is now shared by all within the party...
...Mutual respect for each organization's independence is the maxim for its relationship with unions and other associations...
...Should this interpretation of the Constitution be accepted, it would mean (since presidential and parliamentary elections take place every seven and five years respectively) that the French people only have a right to change political direction without a constitutional crisis every 35 years—the lowest multiple both of seven and five...
...Clearly, the later this takes place the stronger the Socialist party's position will be at the negotiating table...
...The clarification of the political line was simple: the rejection of any form of "thirdforce strategy...
...Yet the mere existence of that platform afforded the alliance the gigantic potential asset of presenting a credible alternative to the existing government...
...and left political leaders, notably Pierre MendsFrance as well as the imaginative leader of the PSU, Michel Rocard...
...A balance of power increasingly favorable to the Socialist party would seem to offer that guarantee...
...First, there had to be a renewal of political principles, ideology, and personnel, demonstrating that the alliance represented a deliberate departure from the worn paths of the Fourth Republic...
...Second, there had to be a clear perception that the alliance was balanced and not weighted in favor of the Communists...
...The intelligentsia and liberal establishment gave politics a wide berth or founded political "clubs...
...The Socialist party, therefore, spent the months following the 1974 presidential election in: (a) renewing the governing bodies of the party and, in the process, ousting from the Secretariat those who had sympathized with Communist criticism or had utilized it for extending their influence within the party...
...Some vital prerequisites have been assured, yet the process and problems of gaining and holding government responsibility lie ahead, and numerous specific obstacles have to be surmounted...
...it also means strictly differentiated institutional structures and processes (administration, government, legislature, parties, unions, etc...
...Why should electors who had hitherto voted further right suddenly move to the extreme left, and not to the more "moderate" left represented by the Socialist party...
...the preservation of the "heritage" of the SFIO and whatever power base it still possessed in the country...
...Both parties had benefited: the Communist party more in terms of the number of elected members to Parliament than in electoral support, the Socialist party with huge gains in the electorate and a considerable increase in parliamentary representation...
...The party now was faced for the first time with the real possibility of definitive collapse, in terms of membership and public support...
...There is no reason why those guarantees should not be renewed...
...What then are the doctrinal principles of the Socialist party...
...Furthermore, the Socialist party's radicalization assured it wide sympathy within the CFTD (the second largest and very militant union), and even some support in the CGT itself...
...These neophytes also constituted at least half of the lower and middle ranks of party officials...
...the total vote of the left was approximately 48 percent...
...Some say the problem lies with the Communists...
...The 1973 election proved the argument to be readily understood and spontaneously shared by the electorate...
...Free" signifies absolute guarantee of all "formal" liberties and rigorous respect for universal suffrage as well as freedom from new forms of alienation related to knowledge and culture, social and economic exchange, natural and organized environment...
...What, then, brought about this swift and drastic change...
...Pour dire oui," Mitterrand declared at the last Socialist party Congress, "il faut pouvoir dire non...
...it was confirmed by the near-victory of its leader, Francois Mitterand, in the 1974 presidential contest...
...New chapters were created: sympathizers became card-carrying members...
...It will have to be renegotiated so that economic and social changes after 1973 may be taken into account...
...2 This variety also reflected great diversity in attitude and ideology: from orthodox Marxism strongly laced with Leninism to social democracy...
...It refuses to consider the working class as monolithic (thus effectively rejecting the notion that only one "workers" party is legitimate), and defines its social base in terms of the coalition of different classes or fractions of classes around a common political outlet for their various aspirations for change...
...The Socialist party has also developed support and opened channels of communication with the many but relatively new organizations fighting for both urban and rural environmental improvement...
...Therein, perhaps, lies the secret of its appeal to the French public...
...Communist reaction was swift when Socialist-party recruitment started on the factory floor and factory chapters were organized...
...reinforcement and democratization of European institutions...
...For most Scandinavian socialists radical change lies in the past...
...Everything the Socialists said or did was scrutinized for deviation from the "unitarian" line...
...The development of democratic economic planning should rely more on contractual mechanisms and indirect incentives within the market than on administrative rules...
...The campaign headquarters, although mostly staffed by socialists, was separate from the party seat...
...Since then, with approximately 30 percent of the popular vote, the Socialist party has emerged as the undisputed winner in most national and local by-elections and in the general county elections of 1976...
...It also depends on the social base of each party and its mobilizing capacity...
...it could lead to a decline of Communist influence to marginal status within the alliance...
...b) elaborating and voting on a doctrinal text ("15 theses for self-government") that clearly defined a new, non-Leninist concept of socialism...
...The English, German, and Austrian traditions of social democracy offer no more and no less an alternative to the Conservatives and Christian Democrats of their respective countries than does the Democratic party when confronting the Republicans in the United States: realistic improvements in the prevailing system...
...The Socialists were able to boast that they had made only a few and minor concessions in the common platform...
...A weekend was devoted to spelling out their agreement on a "projet de soci6te...
...The major foreign-policy problem will obviously be the attitude of the United States and other Western democracies...
...This last point had, of course, been the core of the strategic choice made by the Socialist party...
...The option meant an alliance covering the whole spectrum of governmental policies but within a precisely limited time schedule, stipulating only those changes that could be managed during that period...
...Ultimately, pluralistic democracy could here again prove to be more efficient than bureaucratic forms...
...A compromise will, therefore, have to be found whereby Giscard will accept the right of an elected left majority to form its own government to implement its own policy...
...This could also be the Socialist motto—a struggle to guarantee at all times the right of each party to self-determination and 277 existence in its own right...
...Democratization of French society and "modernization" of socialism were their common aims...
...Such a movement will obviously serve a useful purpose in checking the inevitable resistance of established and threatened powers...
...Consolidating the Party: 1975-1976 THE SECOND CONDITION for victory, and probably the most important, was the consolidation of a party whose growth entailed risk of excessive diversity in attitudes and ideologies...
...Three phases in this process can be observed: 1969-71: Laying the foundation...
...In the meantime, the party has prepared itself for government responsibility...
...The Communist party was so eager to appear as a party "comme les autres" with legitimate governmental capacities that it agreed to most of the program suggested by the Socialists...
...1969 provided the referendum on regionalization, de Gaulle's resignation, and a miserable score for the Socialist candidate in the presidential election that carried Pompidou to the Elysee...
...Party membership almost doubled in two years (to approximately 80,000), and the party cadres were considerably renewed—not so much at the national level as in about half the county federations (Federations Departementales...
...The left-leaning young cold-shouldered the SFIO and either went to (or rather through) various leftist groups or engaged in other forms of 272 social action—youth movements and student unions...
...In the subsequent byelections the Socialists made further headway, giving the united left, for the first time, a majority...
...Above all, doctrinal fragility could be all the more dangerous because of the alliance with the Communists, who had observed the rise of the Socialist party with apprehension, especially after the by-elections that followed 2These figures are rough estimates based on personal observation and not on statistical study...
...The Communist party has great difficulty in gaining sympathy among these groups, whereas the Socialist party's support for self-government, autonomous countervailing power for consumers, residents, and all other sociocultural associations spontaneously meets the demands of most of these new organizations...
...The Socialist party has rejected the Leninist theory of the primary role of the working class in relation to "satellite" classes and has elaborated on the concept of "front des classes" first proposed by Gramsci...
...Pluralistic" signifies respect of free expression of all political parties, unions, and other organizations irrespective of ideology...
...Discussions on up-dating the program were started on a limited number of issues two years ago, but progress has been slow and will obviously have to be accelerated before the next election...
...Who are the French Socialists...
...Reinforcing the Socialist party then became the most rational way toward this end...
...However, under the leadership of Frangois Mitterrand, who had obtained a surprisingly large vote when opposing de Gaulle in the 1965 presidential contest, some of these "clubs" federated into the Convention des Institutions Republicaines and started "normal" political-party activity...
...After all, it was one of the major victims in the fall of the Fourth Republic...
...Since 1945 it was in a state of slow but steady decline, which was accelerated in the last years of Gaullism...
...The reason was that the credibility of the alliance was founded on two factors...
...Simultaneously, discussions began with the Convention des Institutions Republicaines, whose merger with the Socialist party was considered an essential step toward regrouping all currents of democratic socialism in the same organization...
...Such a compromise appears to be the only reasonable resolution to the constitutional deadlock, but it may be difficult to reach...
...All these traits have been abundantly described in the press...
...Francois Mitterrand was elected First Secretary, defeating Savary by a narrow margin...
...In its wake, the June general election called by de Gaulle was disastrous for the left...
...This implies the establishment of workers' control in the factory, consumer control over goods and services, decentralization of the state, and diversification and development of formal political processes...
...It seems as if the "ordinary citizen" senses that a global and radical crisis calls for global and radical solutions and yet has learned to be extremely wary of those who present such "solutions" without true "political capability...
...The Epinay Congress made a strategic decision that to some (Savary and his friends) seemed a risky venture but ultimately proved the key to the rapid ascent of the Socialist party: it opted to accelerate the negotiations with the Communist party for a detailed governmental program...
...from adherents of etatism to proponents of self-government...
...Clearly, all this had to be remedied for the Socialist party to face major challenges ahead: possible and increasingly probable victory at the 1978 parliamentary elections with a mandate to change the basic structure of society through democratic political procedure...
...There was talk of the "depolitization of youth" and "the end of ideology...
...Finally, and probably most important of all, is Frangois Mitterrand's considerable appeal among the working class...
...Earlier, Savary had resigned from Mollet's government, and then from the SFIO, in opposition to Mollet's Algerian policy...
...recruitment and rapid access to responsible positions within the party hierarchy for club members and for the new generation of militants aroused by 1968 but discouraged by its sectarian offshoots...
...The Common Program elaborated in 1972 for the 1973 election was valid for the normal five-year period of the legislature...
...An electoral alliance was established with the SFIO and what was then the Radical party...
...he then founded a disside.it party and finally formed a "club...
...and third, it had been remote from governmental responsibility for over 15 years, and its many newcomers had little or no knowledge of the specific procedures and constraints of government action...
...This figure included the returns for 274 the third member of the Common Program, the Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche, which had split from Jean Jacques ServanSchreiber's Radical party...
...Rejection of a "third-force strategy" in turn now implied that the Socialist party would forgo any prospective governmental responsibility unless, at least, Communist support was included...
...Open" signifies receptivity to other countries and also to initiative, innovation, and change, thereby emphasizing that no specific "model" can be advanced as a final goal for the construction of socialism...
...Many of these persuasions were more sentimental in nature than structured and explicit ideologies...
...Radical change is neither behind them nor ahead—it is not on the agenda...
...But in a party with statutes sanctioning proportional representation of "undercurrents" at all hierarchical levels, this heterogeneity might provide fertile ground for conflict...
...The upheaval of May 1968 found the Socialists unable to offer inspiring leadership to a demanding generation of political activists...
...The campaign required renewed effort from the rank and file: recruitment was stepped up even further...
...Obviously, the right sneered at this tactical choice and predicted rapid Communist domination of the Socialist party...
...For such "third-force strategy," by excluding the Communist party—and with it the large section of the working class it influenced—would inevitably carry the Socialist party to the right and to a position of buttressing "bourgeois"coalitions...
...Influential fringe-watchers of the alliance joined the campaign: various experts and especially top civil servants...
...It also started a deep social movement within the working class, which had always considered the split between Socialists and Communists a tragic source of weakness in opposing their common antagonist...
...from staunch custodians of secularism to Christian moralists and humanists, etc...
...The question now was, who would most benefit from the alliance: who woqld reap the harvest of the "dynamique unitaire...
...The Socialist party's international positions are extremely clear: respect for existing commitments including the Atlantic Alliance...
...This is obviously a more flexible, evolving, and democratic concept of a social base—but it also implies a social base more difficult to secure...
...The "dynamique unitaire" in the country and the Socialist party's growth accelerated 'French elections always take place on two consecutive Sundays: the first ballot allows each party to count its votes...
...It is true that the French Communist party, unlike the Italian, has always been hostile to common European institutions...
...Inside France, the victory of the left will undoubtedly unleash an upsurge of expectations and a vast social movement that will place extremely strong pressures on the new government...
...The first electoral test of the alliance in the 1973 parliamentary elections proved that nobody was "eating" anybody...
...Indeed, many observers of the Socialist party have asserted that without Mitterrand to arbitrate unrest and to convert an authority emanating from support among the electorate into authority within the party, it would soon fall victim to internal contradictions...
...Some Final Remarks THE AMBITION of the French Socialist party is to blend a sense of vision and a radical attitude toward social change with a highly pragmatic and realistic approach to the problems of power and the instruments of social change...
...The Socialist party now had a sheaf of basic "texts" spelling out its specific identity and its concept of the alliance...
...On the national scene, the case of the French Socialist party may also seem curious to many political observers...
...This personal loyalty is steadily being transformed into loyalty toward the Socialist party...
...In economic terms, all this implies maintaining a large private sector, with public ownership applied only to banking, credit institutions, and monopolistic concentrations of economic activities directly or indirectly nourished by public policies (i.e., manufacture of armaments, pharmaceutical products, etc...
...Before the Fifth Republic, the SFIO's participation in a number of centrist maneuvers, systematic practice of a double standard for talk and action (a doctrinaire, orthodox Marxist ideology, combined with opportunistic participation in all types of governments), but, mainly, direct responsibility in the Algerian War, had closed most channels of recruitment for the party...
...Clarification of the political line brought rapid results...
...It is obviously a more exacting way of maintaining influence than through the mechanical device of party agents heading social organizations...
...Mitterrand's position might be summarized as follows: Let us terminate discussion on fundamental issues with the Communist party since we already know what we cannot agree upon...
...Initially, the Communist party enjoyed considerable strategic superiority in this area...
...His own writings, of considerable literary talent, offer us the best understanding of the evolution of this complex personality and its qualities, which undoubtedly are responsible for his capacity to establish his authority inside and outside the party, and to catalyze the hopes of millions for a new and plausible alternative to present French society...
...What indeed is the character of this new French Socialist party...
...Other well-known positive factors are intrinsic to the general political situation in France: the failure of Gaullism without de Gaulle and of Giscard's brand of reformism, and the French Communist party's inability to attain the position of its Italian counterpart...
...Conversations were initiated on a number of fundamental issues...
...Pompidou's death in 1974 precipitated a presidential election—exactly one year later...
...Indeed, nowhere in Europe does one see another socialist party that champions a radical concept of democratic socialism coupled with a radical strategy for implemen271 tation, enjoying the same process of growth and within reach of majority support throughout the country...
...However, increased demands upon a government with limited latitude could multiply difficulties...
...It controls the largest union federation, the CGT, and many social organizations (tenants' associations, youth movements, women's movements, etc...
...In order to prepare the ground for reunification, Francois Mitterrand called a meeting of all proponents of democratic socialism who had joined his campaign...
Vol. 24 • July 1977 • No. 3
