The French Socialist Party as it is today arose from the Congress of Epinay in 1971. Since then the  new political organization has been publishing diverse official documents having to do with ideology and programs. Such publica­tions are made especially, during its national congresses (held every two years) and election campaigns. To these are added a significant number of inter­nal publications intended for the forma­tion of its members or adherents, or for making known the conclusions of the Party's several meetings and seminars.

Since it is impossible to cite the abundance of material, thus produced, we shall give preference in our citations to three absolutely fundamental docu­ments of the SP:

a)The Projet socialistc por la France de annees 80 ("Socialist Program for the France of the 80's) (Club socialiste du Livre. Paris, May, 1981, 380 pages) presents the ambitions of French socialists for the next ten years. The Program redefines socialist priorities and announces beforehand the principal undertakings for which the SP s action will be known to the French people. It should be noted that it does not abrogate the previous texts and programs of the Party (which will be referred to below).

Rather, "it prolongs them to broaden at the same time their field of action and their scope" (p. 7).

In the Party's national convention held in Alfortville on January 13, 1980, the Program was approved by 96% of the votes. The Manifesto of Créteil, of Janu­ary 24, 1981, as well as the 110 Proposi­tions pour la France, which appeared along with it, took their inspiration from the Program. On the basis of these two documents, unanimously approved in the Congress of Créteil, the Socialist Party launched Mitterrand's presidential campaign. (cf. Le Poing et la Rose, no. 91, February 1981).

b) In 1972, the SP and the CP started negotiations to establish a binding agree­ment for a common policy for their government. This gave rise to the Pro­gramme comun de gouvernement de la gauche ("Common Program of Government of the Left"), which was valid for five years. In 1977, since the two parties had not reached an understanding for the renewal of the agreement, the SP updated this Common Program on its own. Early in 1978, during the election campaign, the SP published the updated program in order to give public opinion "the possibility of seeing for themselves" what the Party would do if it were to win the elections, as well as to permit "every­ one to follow its application" (Le Programne comun de gouvernement de la gauche - Propositionis socialistes pour l'actualisation ["Common Program of Government of the Left - Socialist Proposals for Updating"], Flammarion, Paris, 1978, 128 pages, with a preface by FRANÇOIS MITTERRAND, p. 3).

c)Finally, the Quinze théses sur l'autogestion (Fifteen Theses on Self­-Management), adopted by the national Convention of the Socialist Party on June 21 and 22. 1975, (cf. Le Poing et la Rose, supplement to no. 45., November 15, 1975. 32 pages) are of particular interest since in them the French social­ists present the perspective of a self-­managing society as "the SP's own contribution, for the moment on the theoretical plane, to the history of the workers' movement" (Documentation Socialiste, Club Socialiste du Livre, sup­plement to no. 2, no date, pages 42-43) and claim to have given a new content to the idea of self-management (idem, no. 5, no date,). 58).

With these documents. the SP considered that it was giving the ordinary reader a sufficiently broad set of notions to gain his rational support and vote. Therefore they make up, so to speak, the SP's self-portrait, a portrait whose fidel­ity cannot be questioned since one must presume that a movement that has just won such an adroit strategic victory is able to define itself. Furthermore, the socialists definitely assume responsibility for what they publish. One reads in the Program: "We are the only ones to take the risk of expounding our tenets in black and white, and to do so in print...we show ourselves just as we are." (p. 11).

Once in office, Socialist Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy presented a Déclaration de ploitique généraldu Gounvernement ("Declaration of the Government's General Policy") in the session of the National Assembly of July 8th. In this Declaration and in the parliamentary debate that followed, the Prime Minister confirmed the general line of the Program, thereby also making important contributions, to the definition of the SP from the standpoint of ideology and program (cf. Journal Officiel, "Débats Parlementaires," 7/9/81 and 7/10/81). Furthermore, the Prime Minister expressly affirmed on that occasion that he had obtained "from the council of ministers authorization to officially commit the government to this Declaration of General Policy, according to article 49 of the Constitution" (Journal Officiel, 7/9/81, p.55).

·        Reference to these documents in this work will be as follows: "Program,": "Common Program - Proposals for Updating," "Fifteen Theses," and "Declaration of General Policy" respectively. The emphases in the quotations are ours.

·        SP publications use the expression "Socialist Program" both to specifically designate the document, "Socialist Program for the France of the 80's," as well as to more generically refer to the new socialist program that they propose for France and the world, which they call projet autogestionnaire ("Program of Self-Management"). In this case, the expressions "Socialist Program" and "Program of Self-Management" are synonymous. In the text of this work the same ambivalent use of the expression (sometimes specific, sometimes general) is maintained. The reader will easily notice which sense is being used, all the more so since the citations of socialist sources used here leave no margin for confusion.*

* Translator's Note: As will be seen on reading this work, the "Socialist Program for the France of the 80's" (Projet socialiste ... ) is much more than a mere program of a political party. It encompasses a complete reform of human society and even of man himself. This is expressed well by the French word Projet, which has no suitable equivalent in English. Our word Program although it can be understood in a broad sense, also has a more restricted meaning, corresponding to a short or medium term plan of action. This is the case, for example, of the above mentioned "Common Program of Government of the Left." Thus, the reader must keep in mind that the word "Program" used in this translation to designate the "Socialist Program for the France of the 80's" must always he understood in its broader meaning.