Studies of contemporary French politics have repeatedly stressed the persistence and vitality of historical referents as important criteria in electoral choice. According to most commentators, a narrow gap has always existed between the political present and the political past in France. under the current Fifth Republic, the historical roots of political cleavages remain important components in analyzing the French vote; for, as Dorothy Pickles has suggested, what tends to separate opposing political forces is less the content of specific measures than the undertones for which history is responsible.'1 And as a caveat to those contemporary behavioralists who would ignore the past, Mattei Dogan has warned that, Even if all the quantifiable data concerning the economic, social, cultural, and political structure of present-day France . . . were processed by a computer, it would not produce an understanding of political cleavages if their historical backgrounds were neglected.2 Dogan's analysis, like many others, rests upon the assumption that, once initiated, political practices and habits soon reach a stability and momentum of their own. They are often reinforced by other features of the sociopolitical milieu, and passed from one political generation to the next by the socialization process. If they change, they change only slowly and almost imperceptibly.3