The name is absent

net. In February, 1967, the recently elected Secretary-General of the UD-V^e
called for a new membership drive, with major emphasis on the South.

At least for the moment the organization character of the UDR is better
described, as René Rémond characterizes it, as a “government party.”¹³⁴
Created to organize popular and parliamentary votes in support of an exist-
ing Gaullist government, the UDR has enjoyed adequate sanctions and re-
wards to enforce discipline, and has staved off factions like that of Soustelle
and Delbecque which would commit the party to specific programs and
hence perhaps embarrass the government. Like the national organization
of the British Conservative Party, the UDR organization is designed not
to make policy decisions, but rather to mobilize support for those who do.

The organizational structure of the UD-V^e, as the party outside parlia-
ment is still called for the moment, was determined by the Lille Congress
in November, 1967. It builds from the legislative district organization (the
base unit) to the Departmental Union, to the National Congress (Assises),
which meets every two years. At the national level, the pyramid builds from
the National Congress to the National Council, with six hundred members,
meeting approximately every year, to the Central Committee, with one
hundred members, meeting theoretically every month, to the Executive
Bureau, which contains some twenty-five members and meets weekly in
principle. A portion of the members of each body is elected from below;
another portion sits by right of elective or appointive office; and — in the
case of the Central Committee and Executive Bureau — a certain number
are co-opted.

As Jean Chariot has noted, when party ministers and deputies are numer-
ous, as has been the case in recent years, the nonelected members are able
to dominate all national party organs save, conceivably, the National Con-
gress.¹³^^, Although the National Congress has never escaped government con-
trol on an important issue, on occasion it has served as a forum for active
debate. The Congress at Bordeaux in 1959 was the scene of a major intra-
party battle over Algerian policy. The 1961 Congress at Strasbourg was
more orderly, yet witnessed vigorous debate over social and economic pol-
icy. For the next five years, both the National Congress and, to a lesser
extent, the National Council, served primarily to rouse enthusiasm among
party workers, to demonstrate party unity, and to spread the UNR message
to the general public. In this period, with party leaders preparing the
script, these larger party organs tended to suppress conflict, although, to be
sure, there was now somewhat less conflict to suppress.

The Lille Congress of 1967 — the founding Congress of the UD-V^c —
displayed renewed signs of independence. After long discussion, the Statutes
Committee at that Congress amended the new party name proposed by
party leaders — “L’Union des Démocrates Sociaux pour la V^e République”

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