Order, Authority, Nation develops a sociological account of political conversion from left to right through an examination of the historical case of Marcel Déat and the French neo-socialists. Déat and the neo-socialists began their careers in the 1920s as democratic socialists but became fascists and Nazi collaborators by the end of World War II. While existing accounts of this shift emphasize the ideological continuity underlying neo-socialism and fascism, this book centers the fundamentally discontinuous and relational character of political conversion in its analysis. Highlighting the active part played by Déat and the neo-socialists in their own reinvention at different moments of their trajectory, it argues that political conversion is a phenomenon defined not just by a change in belief, but at its core, by how political actors respond to changing political circumstances. This sociological account of a phenomenon often treated polemically offers a unique contribution to the sociology and history of socialism and fascism.

‘Thanks to its impeccable documentation, its deep knowledge of the French political scene in the interwar period, its ability to adequately contextualize political statements, and its fine-grained analysis of position taking among ambitious politicians, Order, Authority, Nation offers a first-rate account of Marcel Déat’s and his neo-Socialist colleagues’ endorsement of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how democrats can turn fascists and, more broadly, how radical political conversions take place.’

Ivan Ermakoff - Professor of Sociology , University of Wisconsin-Madison

‘Bridging the history of ideas with field theory, this remarkable study proposes a renewed explanation of the enigma of conversions from the left to fascism through the ideal-typical case of French intellectual Marcel Déat in the 1930s and 1940s. Rejecting the thesis of continuity, Mathieu Desan masterfully situates the conversion of French neosocialists to fascism within the space of possibilities offered by the political field in the context of the Nazi Party's rise to power and the reconfiguration of the right-left divide into bellicism vs. pacifism. A timely and incisive analysis that resonates with our present.’

Gisèle Sapiro - Professor of Sociology at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris