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Social Democracy in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Charles A. Micaud
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Extract

Ten years after the Liberation, the French Communist Party remains the strongest party in France. It can muster a quarter of the nation's votes and claim more “militants” than all other French parties put together. A majority of industrial workers continue to vote for the “party of the working class” even if they are reluctant to strike on its behalf. This persistent strength is both disturbing and puzzling. It is obviously a major source of weakness not only for French democracy, but for the effectiveness of the Western coalition. There is no simple explanation of the continued hold of Communism, since it is both the cause and the consequence of the many-faceted crisis of French society.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , July 1955 , pp. 532 - 545
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1955

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References

1 Among recent studies of the Socialist Party, see the informative and objective analysis of Williams, Philip in Politics in Postwar France, London and New York, 1954Google Scholar; also Ehrmann, Henry W., “The Decline of the Socialist Party,” in Earle, E. M., ed., Modern France, Princeton, N.J., 1951Google Scholar; Drexel Godfrey, E. Jr, The Fate of the French Non-Communist Left, New York, 1955Google Scholar; Fauvet, Jacques, Les forces politiques en France, Paris, 1951Google Scholar; and Rimbert, Pierre, “L'Avenir du parti socialiste,” Revue socialiste, new scries, No. 54 (February 1952).Google Scholar Much of the information in this paper was obtained during the summer of 1954 at the headquarters of the SFIO in Paris and through a study of the political attitudes of French workers, particularly in the Renault automobile plant.

2 See Sondages, Revue française de I'opinion publique, No. 3 (1952), special issue on French political attitudes.

3 For an analysis of the French labor situation, sec Lorwin, Val, The French Labor Movement, Cambridge, Mass., 1954Google Scholar, and Collinet, Michel, L'Esprit du syndicalisme, Paris, 1951Google Scholar, and Essai sur la condition ouvrière, Paris, 1952.

4 38e Congrès National SFIO, 29, 30, 31 août et 1 septembre 1946: Comptes rendus, 29 août, Paris. See also Williams, , op.cit., pp. 370ff.Google Scholar

5 See Le Populaire, July 14 to July 19, 1954, for the complete text of Gazier's speech.

6 Williams, (op.cit., p. 69)Google Scholar gives slightly different figures.

7 For the organization of the Communist Party, see Brayance, Alain, Anatomie du Parti Communists français, Paris, 1952Google Scholar, and Micaud, C.A., “Organization and Leadership of the French Communist Party,” World Politics, VI, No. 3 (April 1952), pp. 318–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 The SFIO is now facing the problem of coordinating political and trade union action. See, for instance, the speech of Georges Brutelle at the Workers' Conference at Puteaux, in Agenct de Presse de la Liberté, Documentation onvrièrc, supplement to issue of June 12, 1953.Google Scholar