ABSTRACT
The establishment of the Fifth Republic in France in 1958 confronted the French Communist Party (PCF) with a highly unfavorable political setting. In February 1968, the PCF and the Federation of the Left, headed by Francois Mitterand, even signed a Common Declaration, whereby they pledged to rid France of Gaullist presidentialism and return the country to a more strictly parliamentary system of government. To grasp the PCF's interpretation of "advanced democracy" and to appreciate the policy implications embodied in it, one must first understand the party's characterization of state monopoly capitalism. In the 1960s, the PCF's analysis continues, the long postwar period of accumulation by the monopolies, in this case with the aid of public financing, led to a new stage of overaccumulation. The PCF expressly intends that "structural economic reforms," far from "rendering the capitalist system supportable," will immediately launch the economic and political transition to socialism.
