One might suspect the influence of French political traditions which, on the right as much as on the left, always prefer purity of principle to messy compromise. Add to this the congenital French mistrust of liberalism – indeed, French is one of the rare languages in which the word “liberalism” has a pejorative connotation – joined to an equally deep-rooted perception of the state (again, on both the right and the left) as the defender of the general interest par excellence.
人们可能怀疑法国政治传统的影响。这一影响总是置原则纯洁性于杂乱妥协之上，左右两翼概莫能外。此外，法国民众天生对自由主义不信任，实际上，法语是少数对“自由主义”含有贬义的语言之一。加之对国家作为整体利益卓越捍卫者的观念同样根深蒂固（左右两翼又如出一辙）。尽管二十世纪三十年代以来，实用主义已经统领北欧的社会党派，德国社会民主党1957年拜德哥德斯堡大会后亦是如此，而法国社会党人中，至少在言辞层面上对于革命性意识形态的偏好总是占据上风。