The French State in Question

This book demonstrates the importance of legal theory and the idea of the state in French political culture.

H. S. Jones (Author)

9780521890991, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 July 2002

240 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.479 kg

"...this is a very useful addition to the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series....Its intended readers will find it a difficult, challenging, but ultimately extre,ely rewarding experience." Francis Cornish, Linguistics

The French State in Question places the idea of the state back at the heart of our understanding of modern French history and political culture, and challenges the accepted view of the Third Republic as a 'weak' state. At its core is an examination of a central problem in French politics of the belle epoque: should the employees of the state have the right to join trade unions and to strike? The book examines this as a problem of intellectual history: it seeks to explain why this was such an intractable question, and does so by demonstrating the importance of legal theory and the idea of the state in French political culture. In this important and innovative essay in the history of ideas, Stuart Jones shows how during the Third Republic French legal thinkers engaged in a vigorous rethinking of the idea of the state, and assesses their significance for the development of French political discourse.

Introduction
1. Political culture and the problem of the state
2. Law and the state tradition
3. Administrative syndicalism and the organization of the state
4. Public power to public service
5. Civil rights and the republican state
6. From Contract to Status: Durkheim, Duguit and the state
7. Maurice Hauriou and the theory of the institution
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]