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4 - Marginalization and Disarticulation

Neo-Socialism, Planism, and the Popular Front

from Part II - The Vicissitudes of Neo-Socialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2026

Mathieu Hikaru Desan
Mathieu Hikaru Desan
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Boulder
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Summary

As the political crisis of 1934 passed, Déat and the neo-socialists dropped their equivocal posture and returned to the parliamentary preoccupations of their past, merging with other independent reformist socialist parties to form the Union Socialiste et Républicaine (USR). The USR was drawn into the orbit of the anti-fascist Popular Front coalition, but the Popular Front would prove to be a political disaster for the neo-socialists. With the Socialists willing to govern and the Communists emerging as the primary bearers of the Popular Front’s popular-democratic and national-popular mystique, the neo-socialists struggled to distinguish themselves within the political field, resulting in a poor showing in the 1936 elections that brought the Popular Front to power. The Popular Front period was significant for Déat and the neo-socialists’ trajectory, not because it provided a bridge between neo-socialism and fascism, but because it led to the marginalization and disarticulation of neo-socialism.

Keywords

neo-socialismPopular Frontplanismanti-fascismUnion Socialiste et Républicaine (USR)

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Chapter
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Order, Authority, Nation
Neo-Socialism, Fascism, and Political Conversion in Interwar France
 , pp. 131 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2026

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