The French Extreme Left and the Persistence of a Revolutionary Myth

Abstract

French exceptionalism has many aspects, but one is the persistence of the extreme left on the political party spectrum and the size of the extreme left within the left as a whole also needs to be noticed. In particular this party system exceptionalism is evidenced by the Communist Party and the small Trotskyite parties, electorally significant, but on the margins of mainstream politics with an influence that is both direct and indirect. There are Marxist inspired parties in other European countries, and there are other varieties of Trotskyite and anarchist movement as well as social upheavals and riots in deprived urban areas, but the French extreme left has unusual features.