ABSTRACT
The scandals and frustrations of the final years of the Mitterrand period are by no means the whole story of the fourteen-year presidency. In 1986 the Socialists had asked the country to renew its confidence in them on the basis of the laws they had passed and their record as administrators. The constitution of the Fifth Republic had been legitimized not only by the referendum that ratified it but still more by its success in providing stable government. In the early years of the Fifth Republic an American or Briton who watched news programs on French television or listened to the French radio might easily have concluded from their content and tone that the electronic media in France were closer to Soviet than to American or British standards for coverage and freedom. Decentralization and the liberation of the audio-visual media must be reckoned the two great reforms of 1981-1986.
