Workshop: “Subnational elections in times of national crisis in France and beyond”

ESPOL-Lab is pleased to host a workshop dedicated to subnational elections in times of national crisis in France and beyond.

These subnational elections are taking place around the world in a context marked by multiple and interconnected challenges: persistent economic inequalities between territories, ongoing debates over decentralization and recentralization, deteriorating public finances of territorial administrations, and growing concerns regarding public services, security, and the environmental transition. They follow a period of intense political volatility at the national level, characterized by the weakening of partisan attachments, rising abstention, and increasing distrust toward political institutions.

Subnational elections have long played a dual role: they serve both as arenas of territorial representation and as testing grounds for national political trends. Contemporary subnational elections are no exception. They raise several crucial questions: the resilience of local political elites, the capacity of parties to mobilize their voters in a context of low electoral salience, and the extent to which local politics remains insulated from—or is increasingly shaped by—national and ideological cleavages.