Abstract

Baudelaire said that the world advances only through misunderstandings. Apparently, the Left parties have a good chance of winning the March 1978 elections. Such a victory would almost certainly bring an end (either temporarily or indefinitely) to the post-1968 period of political tranquility. Yet, there is a tremendous split between political appearance and political reality. On the one hand, there is what parties say they are and what they will do: their self-representations. On the other hand, there is what they really are and will really do. There is a split between these parties' popular image and their reality. There is likewise a split between the reasons that voters give for voting one way or another, and their true motives: between their representations to themselves of the effects of their votes, and the real effects of their votes.