On the Abolition of Political Parties: Simone Weil and the Politics of Populism

Calling for the abolition of all political parties Simone Weil characterises them as machines designed to generate collective passions and collective views, which act as ends in themselves regardless of justice or truth. In her view parties are totalitarian. This paper revisits Weil’s position after the resurgence of populist parties in Europe. PODEMOS and Syriza mobilise the excluded against corrupt party elites. They vow to reform the state, taxation, and debt repayments, and they reframe the technocratic language of elites as neoliberal imposture. In revising Weil’s philosophical argument against parties, I analyse Greece and Spain to explore what occurs when activist groups become parties, and experience the pressures of conformity, of survival, and of collective passions. When the improper politics of the square enters the balustrades of parliament must parties of necessity betray their ideals in the name of ‘reality’.