National Assembly: a few deputies of popular extraction among a forest of senior executives

Legislative 2022 © FMM graphic studio

The cleaning ladies Rachel Keke (LFI) and Lisette Pollet (RN), the skilled worker Laurent Alexandre (LFI), the delivery driver Jorys Bovet (RN) or even the telephone adviser Andy Kerbrat (LFI)... Several deputies, employees or workers by profession, entered the Palais Bourbon this week in left and far right groups.

Elected officials whose profile clashes, these socio-professional categories being largely under-represented in the National Assembly: workers and employees total respectively 0.9% and 4.5% of all deputies, against 12.1% and 16.1% in the French population.

Within Nupes, these categories represent 2% and 7% of elected deputies.

At the National Rally, 7% and 11%.

A notable difference with the other political forces which is to be sought in "a differentiated social positioning of the parties", according to Sébastien Michon, sociologist at the CNRS and specialist in the sociology of political personnel: "We clearly see that the deputies of the presidential majority, Republicans and the Socialist Party generally often come from the upper strata of the social space. But this is a little less the case for the deputies of the National Rally and La France insoumise.

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This difference in socio-professional composition between the political groups in the National Assembly can be explained by the links between the parties and their electorate.

"The electorate of the RN and LFI is more popular or more anchored in the intermediate categories. There is a logic in wanting to present candidates who resemble his electorate", continues the sociologist.

"Thus, we find more economic elites on the side of the presidential majority or LR, and more people from the intermediate categories at LFI or RN."

There is also a difference between the rebellious and far-right deputies when we look more closely at the sociological distribution of the two parties.

"That of the RN is more in line with the profiles of the working and middle classes: a lot of employees, middle managers, small traders and artisans", notes Arnaud Benedetti, associate professor at Paris-Sorbonne and editor-in-chief of the Political Review and parliamentarian.

“LFI also has these profiles – which have been widely promoted in the media – but they have more civil servants in their ranks.”

"Politics has always been considered a matter of graduates"

The dropper arrival of more popular profiles in the hemicycle coexists with another socio-professional reality: the benches of the National Assembly are mainly populated by deputies belonging to the category of senior executives or more.

For this new legislature, more than 50% of elected officials (316 out of 577) are business executives, civil service executives, intellectual and artistic professionals, as well as business leaders with ten or more employees.

By way of comparison, senior managers represented 20% of the French population in 2020.

This social dynamic is not a new phenomenon but has been going on for decades, according to Arnaud Benedetti: "The overrepresentation of executives began in the 1970s, then strengthened in the 1980s, with a sociology of middle and senior executives in the National Assembly, which is often very present in the political groups."

This was also the case at the start of the previous legislature, in 2017: executives in the private sector were among the most represented socio-professional categories.

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"Politics has always been considered a matter of graduates, so the interest in this subject is more located in the higher categories", explains Sébastien Michon.

"This is also found in the parties: the people who are militant in the parties are also for many from the upper social categories."

Different reasons can explain this lack of socio-professional diversity in politics.

The selection of candidates made by the various political parties before the elections refers to a kind of "know-how" which favors the upper social classes.

"Public speaking is, for example, more obvious for a certain number of professional categories: teachers, lawyers, journalists", notes the sociologist.

Modest social origin can also create a feeling of "illegitimacy" among the main interested parties to get involved and seek a mandate.

“It is a phenomenon of self-censorship known sociologically”, recalls Arnaud Benedetti.

"When people come from a lower social class, they feel less inclined to claim a certain number of responsibilities."

"To bring out issues considered as peripheral"

Even if the phenomenon seems marginal at the Bourbon Palace, the access to national representation of several people from modest social classes (housekeeper, telephone adviser, skilled worker, delivery driver) can give rise to new debates and positions in the hemicycle.

"These new profiles of deputies can guide parliamentary debates and bring out issues which, until now, have been considered peripheral: the lack of means, the lack of regional planning or the lack of services", notes the political scientist.

After the election of Rachel Keke and Lisette Pollet, cleaning ladies notably explained to the Parisian their hope of no longer being "invisible".

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The socio-professional diversity of MPs could ultimately be, in the longer term, one of the keys to "overcoming the current crisis of political representation" in France, according to Arnaud Benedetti: "We should have a hemicycle in the image of what is the country sociologically. When the working classes no longer feel excluded from national representation, this will be one of the means to resolve this crisis."

But for this 16th legislature, the hemicycle still seems far from the mark: the popular categories (workers and employees), despite their representativeness in the composition of French society, still remain marginal among elected officials.

A far cry from the first legislature (1946-1951) where they had 98 deputies out of 522, a record unmatched to date.

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