Today, primaries seem to have become indispensable for preparing an election (presidential or otherwise). The idea is to allow those who wish to designate the personalities among whom the people will choose.
The history of primaries and the political context that gradually established them in the French political landscape help highlight the many pitfalls of this innovation.
Against the emptiness of programs, the overflow of candidates
The theme: is the people always right? This is a question that many are asking.
Could democracy then be fallible?
Yes! answers Polybius (Greek historian -208 to -126) who gives a name to the degeneration of democracy: ochlocracy (pronounced “oklo”), the “government of the multitude,” in which the people lose their unity to become an uncontrollable collection of individuals (which Rousseau will echo in the Social Contract talking about the “dissolution of the State”).
