ABSTRACT
The fortunes of the Michel Rocard government and Francois Mitterrand's second term are intimately connected with the process of change in French party configurations and political attitudes. By substituting Socialist domination of the Left for that of the Communists, Mitterrand began the disarming of polarization. Although the Socialist deputies and party militants reacted badly in May and June 1988 to the offer of numerous ministerial portfolios to non-Socialists, the leadership backs Mitterrand's policy of ouverture. In the week after his re-election the merged Mitterrand-Mauroy factions of the Socialist party met to choose a new first secretary to replace Lionel Jospin, who had announced several months earlier that he wished to leave the post. The remarkable record of Mitterrand's first term nevertheless leaves large problems to address. The immediate effect of Mitterrand's precipitate dissolution of the National Assembly was to weld together a Right that was coming apart.
