Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The internal politics of political parties
- 2 The French Socialist Party in 1937
- 3 The internal crisis of early 1938: the preliminary phases, January to mid-March
- 4 The Royan Congress of June 1938 and the defeat of the Gauche Révolutionnaire
- 5 The years 1938–1945: collapse and reconstruction of the SFIO
- 6 The succession crisis of 1946
- 7 Epilogue: the Socialists and the advent of the Third Force
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - The succession crisis of 1946
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The internal politics of political parties
- 2 The French Socialist Party in 1937
- 3 The internal crisis of early 1938: the preliminary phases, January to mid-March
- 4 The Royan Congress of June 1938 and the defeat of the Gauche Révolutionnaire
- 5 The years 1938–1945: collapse and reconstruction of the SFIO
- 6 The succession crisis of 1946
- 7 Epilogue: the Socialists and the advent of the Third Force
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
During the immediate post-war period the SFIO found itself under increasing stress as the combined task of restoring the national economy and constructing a constitutional settlement imposed heavy demands on successive governments. All of these rested on the alliance of three parties, the Communists, the Socialists and the Christian Democrats (the Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP), and as the Socialist Party possessed the greatest degree of internal democracy of the three, its rank-and-file members were the first to express their discontent at the disadvantages of being part of a governing coalition. By degrees their sense of grievance brought them to the verge of revolt and the task of this chapter is to describe this change of mood within the SFIO and to analyze the organizational crisis which it brought about at the party's 38th National Congress of August 1946.
The 37th National Congress of August 1945
Early in May 1945 as the war in Europe drew to its close, the French authorities were trying to locate and free those public figures who still remained in German hands. Prominent amongst these was Léon Blum and on 4 May Jules Moch, who was still serving in the navy, was given the task of searching for him.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Choice and Democratic OrderThe French Socialist Party, 1937–1950, pp. 267 - 365Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994