French Socialists, Capitalism and the State: A Unique Approach within West European Social Democracy?

Abstract

Without denying the existence of a state ethos among the French socialist elites, Fulla shows that when we view French socialism through the culture and economic practices of its main leaders and experts, the thesis of exceptionalism does not hold true. On the contrary, there are profound similarities in the way different West European socialists conceive and utilise the democratic state within the capitalist system from 1918 through to the present day. If French socialists accord the centralised state a more important place in their doctrine and their rhetoric—though not in their governmental practice—this is best explained through the heritage of a national statist culture transcending party affiliations rather than as a unique and independently invented approach.