ABSTRACT
In most European countries, the social, organizational and policy criteria by which we used to identify the left are in tatters. The 'authoritarianism/democracy' cleavage enduringly shaped the ideology and organization of left parties. This chapter suggests that the best way to understand the record, past and present, of the French Socialists is not by looking at them as 'ahead' or 'behind' other lefts, but as illustrating the strength and weakness of a distinctive left strand, the 'citizens' party. A 'demand' for left policies does not necessarily imply a left 'offer'; in 1997, however, the two appeared to match. However, in large measure it also stems from a relatively ignored reservoir of left identity and policies: the 'left's' historical commitment to political democracy and equality. The recent trajectories of the French and British lefts in recent years are cases in point of how this grafting is working, or not working, in the real world.
