Do Parties Still Matter? The Disappearance of the French Parties in the Electorate

Résumé :

France has been known as a case for weak partisan linkage since the 1960’s and at the same time a new tripolar electoral order seems on the rise since the first election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. How can this apparent paradox be solved? In this chapter I argue that non-partisan citizens are still growing in France, even if parties have changed a lot in the last decades. The electoral order is therefore based on very weak foundations and mostly on rejection of political organizations. This puts the very function of parties as mediating institutions between power and citizens and the French contemporary political equilibrium under strong pressure.