A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #345 - Culture, Read Dahani, Delaine, Faury and Letourneur, Political sociology of the National Rally. Field surveys (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A sociology book on the FN/RN. One again! The FN/RN is the political 
party most studied in sociology and has been for more than thirty years. 
Two questions therefore arise immediately upon reception of this new 
collective work. ---- The first is sociological, scientific: what new 
will we learn from this multi-studied and commented party? What are we 
going to say, what can we say that hasn't already been said about the 
FN/RN? The second question is of a more practical and militant nature: 
what good can these multi-works be used for when we see at the same time 
this party imposing its themes: "national preference", "blood rights", 
"link between immigration and delinquency",... while the anti-fascist 
activists who have been warning about the real danger of the extreme 
right since the mid-1980s seem to have never been heard or taken seriously?

Concerning the first question, it should be noted that this work is a 
collective work - first good point - also carried mainly by young 
researchers - another positive point - which gives pride of place to 
work carried out from the inside (internalist approach ) and in the long 
term. Which partly explains the quality of the work presented here. The 
work, divided into three parts, territorial anchors, activism, partisan 
elites, thus offers a diversity of areas which are all micro-focuses on 
a sub-population / an activist sub-space. The choice made here to study 
the FN/RN as one would study an average party allows us to see and 
understand the multiple logics of membership in the FN/RN inscribed in 
particularly well-documented and transcribed individual and social 
trajectories.

Based essentially on qualitative work, a large part of the chapters 
allow us to take a step back from certain automatisms when it comes to 
qualifying activists and/or voters of the FN/RN. Several studies focus 
on social groups a priori distant from the representations that we can 
have of them and present profiles of activists and "atypical" voters: 
"ethno-racial" minorities, "men gays", "teachers". These finely studied 
paths allow us to understand the multiple logics which lead to 
campaigning or voting for the FN/RN, responding as much to previously 
acquired dispositions as to the existence of spaces for internal 
sociability allowing these "atypical" people to exist, or even make them 
elements of advancement within the party.

Understanding the internal logic of operation and mobilization of the 
FN/RN allows us to highlight the strengths but also the weaknesses of 
this party which is still struggling to constitute a pool of activists 
covering the territory. In this case, it is rather the electoral 
successes which will lead to the densification of this network and not 
the reverse.

The work, which intends to restore to its subject "its social depth, 
anchoring its study in a general political sociology of the extreme 
right, political parties and electoral mobilizations", is a relevant 
tool for those seeking to understand and combat , on the ground, this 
party is fundamentally part of the extreme right.

David (UCL Savoies)

Safia Dahani, Estelle Delaine, Félicien Faury, Guillaume Letourneur 
(dir.), Political sociology of the National Rally. Field surveys, 
Presses universitaire du Septentrion, 2023, 326 pages, 25 euros.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Dahani-Delaine-Faury-et-Letourneur-Sociologie-politique-du-Rassemblement
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