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Associations, such as youth clubs, developed for young people at the beginning of the 19th century enjoyed prodigious success and continue to grow in the form of leisure centres, community centres or even as sports centres. As a result of their success, they have been confronted with the problems of management, and some of these organisations have drifted into management styles not dissimilar from those of private companies. Since every French village or town district has to provide such associations, these centres have become service providers satisfying the public's demand and appealing to a public, whose consumer behaviour is a far cry from the educational ideals which these movements promoted when they were created. As a result of these obligations, what has happened to the original militant spirit? François Rousseau believes that this is an important question and has made it the subject of this thesis at the École polytechnique.