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1945-1958 - Under the Fourth Republic

Occupied initially with the rebuilding of the country and the creation of a new parliamentary democracy, the SFIO was quickly confronted, inside, with the problem of Communist competition and, outside, with the constitution of the two large antagonistic blocs. With the elections of 1945, PCF exceeded the SFIO for the first time (26% against 24%). In October, 1945, Communists and Socialists commanded the loyalty of an absolute majority of the French electorate. But their plurality was uncomfortably small (51.9 percent). Furthermore, it contained up to one-half million votes of the UDSR, allied for electoral purposes with the Socialists. This group, however, moved to the Right, once the Socialist-Communist collaboration became more accentuated.

Some significant shifts had taken place in the composition of the Left Wing parties. The Socialist Party was winning a large number of middle class votes which formerly went to parliamentary figures aligned with the Radical Socialist Party, the biggest loser in the October, 1945 elections. The Socialist Party became entrenched in many dominantly rural and smalltown areas, especially in the southwest. But in the urban districts, with the possible exception of Paris, it was at best stationary.

The PS congress of September 1946 was held where the party passed through an serious identity crisis. The Socialists were most acutely threatened with competition from a powerful, dynamic, and vigorous CP party machine, and had consequently tried very hard to re-enforce party discipline and to increase the power of their executive. However, they had never gone so far as to sacrifice completely the freedom of conscience of their adherents in favor of an absolute subjection to the central party machine. Guy Mollet animated a composite tendency of left which put the outgoing management (Daniel Mayer) supported by Leon Blum in the minority. Leon Blum proposed the party seek how the socialist transformation can be achieved by democratic means. Refusing to yield to "the fear of that it would be called "communist", the old leader invited the party to be itself. Guy Mollet, for himself, affirmed his fidelity with the Marxist doctrines, the class struggle, the unit of action with PCF, and condemned the revisionists.

For Leon Blum and the Socialists ensuring governmental responsibilities, the major concern remained the introduction of the new parliamentary mode of the Fourth Republic, and, outside, the search for a third way between being an American protectorate and the Stalinist dictatorship. Thus efforts were understaken to a create a strong and independent Europe. The SFIO, in the 3rd force (alliance with the radicals and the MRP in opposition at the same time to the Gaullists and the Communists), experienced a crumbling of its electoral positions and a decline of militant [ie, party activist] participation.

The position of the Socialists became almost self-explanatory. Its middle-of-the-road position between the extreme Left and the Center imposed on it the ungrateful role of "eternal mediator." By tradition and inclination the Socialists had inclined toward a political system the focal point of which would be a unicameral Assembly. This tendency had only become stronger after the Blum government's unfortunate experience with the French Senate in 1937. All this served to magnify the Socialists' desire for parliamentary predominance. However, this predilection had been tempered by the realization that they might have to share the burden of government under such conditions with a dynamic and aggressive CP bent on absorbing the Socialist Party. Many of them would be glad of some outside checks which would make it easier for them to resist the Communist embraces and which would, for the benefit of their left wing militants, put the onus of a situation in which they could not go all the way with the Communist Party on some impersonal constitutional provision rather than on their unwillingness. Few would dare to go as far as their grand old man, Leon Blum, who in later years had mellowed considerably and who endorses bluntly an executive-legislative relationship drafted on the American or Swiss model.

The main outcome of the battle of the 10 November 1946 elections was the increasing polarization of French political life into two camps, Communists and representatives of the middle class (MRP, the Radical Socialists and the Rightists). The Socialists were rapidly dwindling in political force. Between October, 1945, and November, 1946, they lost over a million votes. In the November election they lost 700,000. As part of these lost votes went to the Right, the Left consequently incurred a loss, even while the Communists grew in strength.

In 1954, Pierre Mendès France, then member of the socialist Radical party, appeared to incarnate the revival of the non-communist left. The difficulties and the dramas of decolonization led the Socialists to take the direction of a government of republican character in January 1956. The achievements were notable - the Treaty of Rome on the EEC, 3rd week of paid vacations. - but all the political action of the government of Guy Mollet was mortgaged by the war of Algeria. The hardening of the war led Pierre Mendès France and Alain Savary to leave the government. The SFIO was left deeply divided. The IVe République did not survive the takeover by force of the soldiers which, in May 1958, brings back de Gaulle to power.