Adapt or Perish: The Social and Material Conditions of the Transformations of the French National Assembly Over the Past Century
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a PhD study on the transformations of the French National Assembly, carried out as part of a doctoral thesis in historical and political anthropology, which focused not so much on the legislative work itself but on all the material and social conditions that make it possible. The period under consideration covers more than a hundred years, from the installation of the telephone at the Palais Bourbon at the end of the 19th century to today's so-called “digital revolution”. Two elements emerge from this study. It first appears that at every opportunity to modernise the tools of legislative work, the role and place of the Assembly was redefined. It then becomes clear that for more than a hundred years, the Assembly has in fact never stopped modernising itself, in an endless process. In the end, this research shows that, on a certain scale, contrary to preconceived ideas and institutional discourse, the French parliament is not a rigid and immutable social organization, but quite the opposite, flexible and dynamic.
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