In the aftermath of April 21 2002, the "notabilization" of the Socialist party was denounced in explanation of Lionel Jospin's defeat and the absence of any popular mobilization around his name. The process began in fact during the Fourth Republic, leaving still today the degraded image of a 'party of notables of the Third Force". Yet the PS-SFIO still and always intended to be a party of revolution and class conflict. But in spite of working class reflexes in the choice of its candidates, it was no longer sociologically the generic representative of the working class. Thanks to their local implantation and ruralization, its parliamentarians and general counselors became notables, aging personnel and hostile to feminization. Their professionalization was accentuated by the practice of holding several concurrent mandates and their ability to forge alliances of the Third Force in the field while it had proved unsuccessful in Parliament. Balking at leading the Federation of Socialist Deputies for the French Mayors' Association, the elected officials and their growing autonomy put into question their integration into the party apparatus and valorized the defense of the general interest to the detriment of party spirit. Faced with the erosion of its militant rank and file and its voters, but strengthened by its local notables, the PS-SFIO had to accept seeing the myth of a "working class party" disintegrate.
