EIGHTEENTH century France bequeathed to the modern world the concepts of revolution and popular democracyand last week the French seemed bent on perilously trying to practice both at the same time. As the campaign to elect a new National Assembly got underway, rioting and violence erupted anew in cities throughout France. For a while it looked as though the explosion of police concussion and tear-gas grenades might blot out the appeals for votes by the 2,260 candidates running on broadly diverse platforms in Metropolitan France's 470 electoral districts (see box).
Heavy Toll. After eight days of relative calm, violence flared afresh when...
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