France turns right, as we understand it everywhere ? It all depends on what we call rightization, explains V. Tiberj, because it is the values of the left which, today, seem to have the preference.
The specialist in electoral sociology Vincent Tiberj offers us, with his latest work, a good practice of the famous Durkheimian axiom that we must break with the prestations. There is indeed, in public debate, a fairly widely shared observation according to which France is turning right. This hypothesis, which seems to be attested by electoral results as well as by polls, is also defended by certain specialists such as Luc Rouban. And yet, Vincent Tiberj undertakes to demonstrate that in spite of appearances, our country is experiencing a movement that is not very visible and radically opposite to gauchization “ bottom “, It is true masked by a rightization” top ». How to explain such a paradox ?
Study a paradox: method questions
The defense of this counter-intuitive hypothesis is based on the theoretical framework in which his reflection is inserted and on the method he mobilizes. He is indeed one of the few French political scientists to register in the footsteps of Ronald Inglehart and his analysis of values, which favors the study of cohorts by longitudinal preferences (of the type European Values Study). V. Tiberj, however, is not an orthodox disciple of the North American sociologist: it is distinguished from the theory of post-materialism on several points, in particular by two differences relating to the relegation of socio-economic values in the background and especially to the oblivion of the autonomy of the policy, which is not for him the simple reflection of cultural development. To put it differently, while recognizing the fertility of his method and his hypotheses, V. Tiberj accuses him of conveying a teleological illusion (we are going straight to the bright postmatalist future), as well as an inability to integrate the way in which political actors will politicize (or abandon) certain values.
V. Tiberj nevertheless retains from the American sociologist the need to reason in a diachronically by cohort. It is by applying this method that he intends to demonstrate that France is experiencing a vast movement of leftization, produced by generational renewal and the elevation of the level of diploma. The demonstration goes through several stages, the first of which is decisive, because it establishes that the French population is actually worked, as theorized Inglehart, by a “ silent revolution “Always bringing more” cultural liberalism ». Concretely, this means that France is quietly evolving towards a defense of gender equality, tolerance to immigrants, their descendants and Jews, or even towards the acceptance of sexual minorities. In economic matters, the author emphasizes that the evolution is more uncertain, the French oscillating according to the periods between social preferences and liberal preferences.
A rightization “ top »»
If a rightization “ bottom “So did not take place, the fact remains possible to highlight a rightization” top ». To feed this thesis, Tiberj begins by insisting on the prevalence of a “ Atmosphere conservatism Who permeates the intellectual field and the media. We will not hide the frustration produced by the reading of the dedicated chapter: it is not enough from a catalog to the prevert or an evocation of the conservative diversions of the republican reference to highlight the reality of a “ moral panic “Part of the intellectual world. The pages devoted to the transformations of the media landscape appear more convincing and the author rightly insists on their role of echo chamber of rightization, very real, of “ Fast Thinkers »Benefiting from privileged access to television sets, radios and press – social networks exercising a bubble of filters. By influencing the political agenda and the framing of public problems, intellectuals and the media are clearly central actors in rightization “ top “Described by the author.
This phenomenon is also based on the choices made by political actors in the construction of their offer. Taking up the work of Elmer Sachattschneider in order to correct the eviction of politics by Inglehart, Tiberj studies the work of framing the values to which the partisan actors engage in. This makes it possible to understand how France went from a multicultural consensus at the end of XXe century to a focus on immigration at the start of the XXIe century. The author here points to a new paradox: if prejudices are backing up in the general population, they can also now be assumed openly by a minority, which reinforces the false impression of a rightization of the electorate. Another important element put forward by the author in his demonstration: disconnection between citizens increasingly in demand for redistribution since the 2008 crisis and political parties whose offer remains characterized by more or less liberal policies.
The great resignation
The central element of the demonstration to which V. Tiberj is, however, is what he calls the “ great resignation ». By this syntagma, he intends to distance from an ever increasing number of citizens of the electoral process. This is why we must not proceed as political sociology does mainstream : The analysis of the electoral results participates in the maintenance of the myth of rightization, because they only reflect the orientations of the fringe of the population, less and less numerous and perhaps soon in the minority, which continues to express themselves in the ballot boxes. The growth of abstention, not to mention the non-inscribed, distorts the image given by electoral meetings: if the baby boomers continue to vote en masse, the post-baby-boomers already vote less regularly, not to mention the millennials. V. Tiberj explains that each news cohorts a little more voting, even though the interest in politics is maintained. Here we find the thesis of “ critical citizen From Pippa Norris applied to France: increasingly educated citizens are moving away from the vote by dissatisfaction with the political supply, and when they vote, they do it essentially according to a logic of negative politicization, that is to say by formulating a refusal rather than a frank adhesion.
Dissatisfied with strictly electoral democracy, these “ distant citizens It turns away to practice a democracy of protest pending the hypothetical advent of a deliberative democracy, even sorive. In this regard, we must mention a second frustration caused by reading the book: the proposals made by the author for a democratization of democracy (multiplication of national and local referendums, citizen conventions) remain little. The fact remains that the observation drawn up appears convincing: the electoral majority (when at least it exists) represents only a social minority ; THE baby boomers wealthy dominate there at the expense of the following generations ; THE post-baby-boomers who vote are the most favored ; Popular categories take refuge in systematic abstention. Thus explains the observable disconnection between the dominant values (on the left) and the values (on the right) proposed by the parties and acclaimed by the voters. Thus explains the endless agony of a left unable to return to its socio -economic fundamentals and undermined by a deficit of incarnation. Thus explains the growing success of a national rally having succeeded in its dedication company, especially since it was accompanied by a normalization produced by exogenous factors (the triangulation practiced by the center and the right, as well as the candidacy Éric Zemmour which allowed it to “ refocus »).
The future of an illusion
It is not possible, within the framework of a review, to evoke in detail all the points which are lit by a new day by the method of analysis of the cohorts. Finally, let’s say that one of the main merits of this work is to point out, beyond the questions of values, the problematic decline in the representativeness of elected officials: if the presidential election continues to mobilize, the other elections often lead to giving birth to a political majority based on an increasingly rachitic sociological base. This situation is obviously not tenable and it invites to rethink the foundations of political legitimacy, as much as to show institutional and procedural creativity in order to bring the most recent cohorts towards a participation which is no longer negative: it is necessary to invent the conditions of what is proposed to call a “ new assertive policy ».
If V. Tiberj’s book invites you to term optimism, it does not completely dissipate the reasons for pessimism in cash. What, in fact, will be made the future ? Most likely is that after a transitional moment during which the baby boomers will dominate the electorate by responding to the offer “ rightist »Current, they gradually fade by being replaced by more tolerant and open cohorts: we find here a variant of the thesis developed in Cultural Backlash from Inglehart and Norris. But, as V. Tiberj indicates at the very end of his book, the path to this bright future could be hampered by a road trip, the consequences of which are difficult to anticipable: the accession to power of a far -right party.
The risk charred by rightization “ top “It is indeed that by the mechanism of the self -registration prophecy, we see a somewhat surreal situation happen: a society made of increasingly progressive citizens, but also increasingly critical and distant with regard to the political game, governed by an inexperienced elite who is dangerously reached towards the” illiberal democracy ». If therefore the analyzes of V. Tiberj tend to reassure the (progressive) reader who projects himself in the long term, they are not enough to make the fears of those who look at the black clouds are disappearing in the sky of French democracy.