摘要：The defeat of the left in the 1978 French legislative elections marked the end of an era for the Parti Communiste Francais. The most extensive experiment into United Front politics in the PCF's history and fifteen years of strategic continuity had led to failure. The party's turn toward profound self-examination after the elections was therefore not surprising. What has come as a surprise, however, is the way-contradictory, confusing, often opaque, and sometimes brutal-in which the PCF has tried to re-evaluate its position. Basic aspects of the PCF's identity have been at stake. What should its strategy be? What should its relationship to socialist countries be? What kind of internal life will it have? Will it continue down the road of Eurocommunism? More than a year after the defeat of 1978, none of these questions have been answered. But the party's inability to chart its own future has simultaneously provided invaluable sources of understanding of what the PCF is now.
其他摘要：The defeat of the left in the 1978 French legislative elections marked the end of an era for the Parti Communiste Francais. The most extensive experiment into United Front politics in the PCF's history and fifteen years of strategic continuity had led to failure. The party's turn toward profound self-examination after the elections was therefore not surprising. What has come as a surprise, however, is the way-contradictory, confusing, often opaque, and sometimes brutal-in which the PCF has tried to re-evaluate its position. Basic aspects of the PCF's identity have been at stake. What should its strategy be? What should its relationship to socialist countries be? What kind of internal life will it have? Will it continue down the road of Eurocommunism? More than a year after the defeat of 1978, none of these questions have been answered. But the party's inability to chart its own future has simultaneously provided invaluable sources of understanding of what the PCF is now.
