Science at UM [S05-ep03]: The Decline of Partisan Organizations
This week on A l’UM la science, a long-form interview to mark the release of the latest book by Alexandre Dézé, a political science researcher at Cepel, entitled Fin de partis : enquête sur le présumé déclin des organisations partisanes(End of Parties: Investigation into the Alleged Decline of Partisan Organizations). The program is broadcast every Wednesday on Divergence.
April 23, 2017: as France waits to find out the name of its new president, a new political horizon is emerging, with neither of the two governing parties making it past the second round. They will not even reach the 5% threshold in the next presidential elections.
Was this a fulfillment of Emmanuel Macron's prophecy in November 2016 that "the parties are dead," or Jean-Luc Mélenchon's assertion in October 2017 that "the old parties and ancient structures will not help us get out of this"? Politicians are not the only ones to have danced on the grave of the old parties. The media also widely reported on their demise. And after all, why blame them? Pepe Grillo's Italy, Podemos' Spain, and even, on a local scale, the citizen movement Nous sommes seemed to confirm this theory of the decline of political parties. Political science itself confirmed this trend by feeding into the declineist theory with numerous studies.
But what exactly do we mean by decline? Where does this collapsological approach come from and how did it become so prevalent? This is the first epistemological step proposed by Alexandre Dézé, a political science researcher at Cepel, in his latest book published in September 2025 and entitled Fin de partis: enquête sur le présumé déclin des organisations partisanes (End of parties: investigation into the alleged decline of partisan organizations). In it, he questions the indicators used to analyze this decline and deconstructs all the major concepts developed since the late 1960s in the United States. Ultimately, he demonstrates how epistemology is the great unthought of this collapsological approach and how the thesis of decline masks the great plasticity and resilience of parties.
At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!
Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews : Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Alice Rollet
Listen to the "A l'UM la science" program on Divergence FM 93.9
UM podcasts are now available on your favorite platforms (Spotify, Deezer, Apple podcasts, Amazon Music...).