Research Framework: Is elective political commitment compatible with maintaining a family life? What role does private relationships play on the careers of elected politicians?

Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the role played by the family in the political careers of elected representatives, both in the processes of engagement and disengagement, and in the course of political careers.

Methodology: This article presents five portraits, or five political trajectories (analysed using the interactionist sociology concept of career), which illustrate in different ways the role played by the family in the political involvement of elected representatives, in their decision to withdraw from political life, and in their ‘lives after’ elective politics.

Results: Firstly, the family can provide support for the elected official by encouraging the commitment and retention of political players: support in domestic work so that the elected official can commit fully to politics, moral support, support in the political work itself. The family space is a enclosed place where it is possible to recharge one’s batteries and express one’s emotions. The family can also play a role in the doubts and questioning of the commitment, or even in the decision to withdraw from political life. For example, a biographical event can act as a “wake-up call” for the elected representative on the urgent need to rebalance their social time. The feeling of being too absent for family and friends and/or the desire to spend more time with their loved ones can motivate their withdrawals from political life.

Conclusions: However, these factors do not count in the same way depending on gender, the age of the elected representative, the age of their children, whether or not they are in a relationship, their social background and the culture of their political party. Finally, the increase in withdrawals linked to family constraints bears witness to a process of normalization in the political profession.

Contribution:

• reconciling family and work
• daily life
• time
• politics
• use of time

https://journals.openedition.org/efg/21485