ABSTRACT
French Socialism is one of the oldest socialist traditions, and it has a diversity which has fuelled its incipient factionalism from the earliest times. French Socialism was thus predisposed to take up doctrinal and revolutionary Marxism, which suited their prevailing outlook, more than in other 'social democratic parties’. Francois Mitterrand’s pitch at Metz was thus couched in radical anti-capitalist language proposing to install 'socialism' in a dramatic break with the past. French socialist thinking until relatively remained dominated by the idea of the dramatic rupture with 'capitalism' and in consequence the 'social democratic' gradualism of incremental reform was not where the intellectual effort was made. Party politics was conducted in strangled Socialist argot, with resolutions on the overthrow of capitalism and the radical 'break' or the great leap forward, rather than in the incremental consensus language which meant the discussion of realistic reforms.
