This paper aims to show how (according to what logic, what purpose and with what means) the French National Assembly takes advantage of its building -the Palais Bourbon- to give material existence to the ideal of popular sovereignty. The analysis is based on a long-term ethnographic investigation (2007-2017) as part of a doctoral thesis in anthropology on parliamentary infrastructure.
We show that, since the early 2000s, the institution faces a dilemma: to be both the main place of law-making and the “House of citizens”, to whom it offers guided tours. To solve this issue and to allow MPs and citizens (as well as journalists, visitors, staffs, civil servants) to inhabit together within the Palais Bourbon, the administration has implemented an original policy, called “separation of flows”. With it, it has become possible to finely organise the circulation of everyone, and thus their mutual interactions. We explain that, in doing so, it places MPs and citizens face to face, in a specific conception of democracy.
This research work has resulted in a chapter in a forthcoming volume edited by Pr. Sophia Psarra (Bartlett School of Architecture, UK), entitled “Parliament Buildings: The Architecture of Politics in Europe”.
