ABSTRACT
Many of those who have been called the ‘planistes’, and in particular the Belgian Henri de Man, the French neo-Socialist Marcel Déat, and a number of their major followers, became collaborators under the Occupation. Because of this, the tendency has been to regard the planistes as having been ‘fascist’ (and indeed pro-Nazi) from the start, either explicitly or implicitly. This chapter concludes that there is little in this: Déat’s party was not revolutionary or extra-parliamentary, but a parliamentary socialist group regarded as suitable to be a partner in the Popular Front alliance. De Man was a leading figure in the Belgian Labour Party, holding important ministerial posts right up to the war. The fact that leading figures in the British Labour Party, including G.D.H. Cole and Hugh Gaitskell, were also enthusiasts for de Man’s ‘Plan du Travail’ underlines the point (pace Sternhell) that ‘planisme’ was not seen as a ‘fascist’ movement. Additionally, a good number of planistes took part in the Resistance. Was there, however, an undercurrent of authoritarian attitudes involved within ‘planisme’, which caused some of its supporters eventually to go in with Nazi Germany? Because ‘planisme’ necessarily involved elitist government by ‘experts’, many planistes tended to accept the idea of undemocratic forms of government led by bureaucrats.
