The weakness of the parties. Increasingly slender but decisive for public life

Evanescent and with fewer and fewer members, yet they are the pillars that hold up the relationship between society and the state. An exchange between an Acolyte and a Vote Catcher on the crisis of political consensus and the possible solutions to be adopted

They are thin, evanescent, swinging, with an ever-shrinking following. They are political parties. Yet they are the pillars that hold up the relationship between society and the state. The characteristic of representative government is that it ceaselessly reveals society to its government and to itself, and the government to itself and to society, wrote the great historian and politician in the first half of the 19th century Francois Guizot (the quote is in P. Rosanvallon, “Le moment Guizot”, Paris, Gallimard, 1985, p. 55). And how could society reveal itself to its government if not through parties? We hear an ambitious but candid dialogue on this subject between an Acolyte, the trusted supporter of a political party, and a Vote Catcher, good at garnering votes. A dialogue perhaps nostalgic, but realistic, which reviews all the weak points of today’s parties.