Lyrical Illusions or a Socialism of Governance: Whither French Socialism?

Abstract

The demise of French socialism in the current period occurred on June 13, 1982, barely a year after the Socialists' electoral triumph. The government's plan de rigueur signalled the abandonment of its ambitious attempt to initiate a radical form of social democracy in France. Unlike Hegel's owl of Minerva, this time theory preceded practice. For years, French intellectuals had been proclaiming the end of socialism-when they were not equating socialism with the gulag. The extent to which rightist ideological hegemony and the near-absence of socialist theorising contributed to the government's conservative shift cannot be determined. But the feebleness of leftist intellectual activity, as well as the lack of pressure from the left, including trade unions and social movements opposed to statism, militarism, chauvinism, and class inequality, was doubtless significant. More influential in the short run was the failure of the government's attempt to radicalise social democracy.