ABSTRACT
Francois Mitterrand was representative of a series of developments which surpassed his own personality, but which came to be associated with his name. His positive personal contribution to the development of French politics in the Fifth Republic might be analysed in terms of four criteria: as a catalyst, as a legitimator of new policy directions, as a consensus builder, and as a reluctant moderniser. Mitterrand acted as a catalyst for a series of developments which would probably have occurred anyway, but whose particular form was unmistakably shaped by his personality. This aspect of Mitterrand’s legacy can be charted most pertinently in relation to his activity as a political opponent in the 1960s and 1970s. Any attempt to disentangle key themes running throughout Mitterrand’s career encounters the difficulty of a career that has lasted almost fifty years, spanning the entire spectrum of postwar France. The search for consistency in a politician’s beliefs over such a period is likely to be illusory.
