The belated love of French sociologists for parliaments
Résumé
French political science’s attraction for sociology has had two major consequences regarding legislative studies in France. First, parliaments have been understudied up to a recent period. Second, the on-going revival of legislative studies in France is characterised by strong sociological input. This chapter critically reviews this trend considering the major issues developed by French scholars: the sociology of political careers, parliamentary roles, local representation, women in politics and MPs’ entourage. After having pointed to some limits of this literature, the chapter takes back the template elaborated in the introduction of this book to subjectively identify four recent French approaches to parliaments, grounded on broad sociological schools. Those new outlooks appear to be both original, considering legislatives studies’ usual focus, and heuristic for understanding parliaments’ complex linkages to society.