The French Left: Uneasy Relations

Everyone in Paris knows that the French Communist party (CP) is no longer a revolutionary party bent on seizing power by force or subversion—perhaps simply because this would be impossible. In signing the Common Program for an electoral bloc with the Socialists and other left-wing groups before the election this past spring, the CP had to make a number of important concessions, but it also succeeded in breaking out of its electoral isolation. Its hope to become a governmental party has ther...