Thesis defense by Arthur GROZ

Mr. Arthur GROZ defended his thesis entitled "The Institutionalization of New Protest Parties in Southern Europe through the Lens of Activist Careers: A Comparative Study of Syriza, Podemos, and La France Insoumise" on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, at 2:00 p.m.

Summary:

Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, new partisan organizations emerged, particularly in the most affected countries of Southern Europe, such as Podemos, Syriza, and La France Insoumise. Calling for a genuine program of social transformation, like traditional protest parties, these anti-austerity organizations will quickly be confronted with the exercise of power (in Greece and Spain) and a process of institutionalization concomitant with their entry into the national political landscape, a phenomenon already familiar to governing parties.

However, while the profile of voters for these new protest parties has been studied, their institutionalization dynamics have not really been the subject of comparative sociological investigation.

Thus, based on three field studies involving interviews and direct observation sequences conducted with activists from 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 lens of activist careers.

Drawing on both the tools of the sociology of engagement and those of the sociology of partisan organizations, it can be shown that institutionalization sorts activists into two groups: while some, who are well endowed with social and cultural capital, become professionalized and quickly climb the party hierarchy, others, whose resources are more limited, struggle to find a role in these parties and, in the absence of rewards for their engagement, may gradually be led to leave them.

Under these circumstances, these new partisan organizations challenge existing political party typologies, as they combine the turnover of activists typical of protest parties with the professionalization of government party cadres. This potentially points to a new partisan model, the "professionalized protest party."