Touraine’s Thesis: End of Political Sociology

Abstract

Elections in capitalist democracies in Western have changed recently to such an extent that one is inclined to look upon election results as crucial evidence for Alain Touraine’s argument in favour of a transformation from a Durkheimian  (”structure”) to a Weberian world (”actor”)  in his La fin des societies (2013). The central aspect of party systems in Western Europe is not social structure today but now voter volatility, which can be measured allowing for an empirical application of Touraine’s thesis.