From Self-Interest to Conformist Behaviour: Observing the Intra-Party Logics of Cohesion. Lessons from direct ethnographic observation of the majority group in the French National Assembly

Party cohesion is a crucial issue for parliaments, especially in parliamentary systems, as it determines the stability and influence of governments. Party cohesion is legislative studies is mainly investigated by quantitative methods, sometimes by interviews. For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to observe parliamentary groups backstage, to open the black box of intra-party politics. Yet it may be truly instructive about the process of party cohesion. The proposed paper is based on ethnographic observation of the Socialist majority group in the French National Assembly during the 14th legislature (2012-2017): I was able to directly observe numerous meetings within the parliamentary group – plenary meetings, working sessions, minority factions’ meetings – and supplement this with interviews with Socialist MNAs. This research design and methods allow for a more refine analysis of the formation process of parliamentary party cohesion. In addition to party discipline and members’ conscious self-interests or party loyalty, there is a collective system controlled by the party leadership that limits free deliberation and encourages passivity, deference to the leaders and consent to government power. Majority party cohesion is the French National Assembly is thus largely based on beliefs internalized by MNAs that legitimize obedience to government leaders.