Arthur GROZ's thesis defense
Mr. Arthur GROZ defended his thesis "L'Institutionnalisation des nouveaux partis contestataires d'Europe du Sud au prisme des carrières militante. A comparative study of Syriza, Podemos and France insoumise" on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 2pm.
Summary:
In the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, new party organizations are emerging, particularly in the hardest-hit southern European countries, such as Podemos, Syriza and France Insoumise. Claiming a genuine program of social transformation, like the traditional protest parties, these anti-austerity organizations were soon confronted with the exercise of power (in Greece and Spain), and with a process of institutionalization concomitant with their inclusion in the national political landscape, a phenomenon already familiar to governing parties.
However, while the profile of the voters of these new protest parties has been studied, the dynamics of their institutionalization have not really been the subject of comparative sociological investigation.
Thus, based on three field surveys mobilizing interviews and direct observation sequences, carried out among activists of these new protest parties in Barcelona (Podemos), Athens (Syriza) and Montpellier (La France Insoumise), it becomes possible to analyze and compare the institutionalization process of these three parties through the prism of activist careers.
Drawing on the tools of both the sociology of commitment and the sociology of partisan organizations, we can show that institutionalization leads to a sorting out of activists: while some, who are highly endowed with social and cultural capital, become professionalized and climb the ranks of the partisan hierarchy very quickly, others, whose resources are more limited, struggle to find a role in these parties, and, in the absence of remuneration for their commitment, may be gradually led to leave them.
Under these conditions, these new partisan organizations call into question existing political party typologies, since they combine the turnover of activists typical of protest parties with the professionalization of government party executives. In this way, a new partisan model, the "professionalized protest party", is potentially taking shape.