ED Droit
From the fragmentation of the world to the powers of politic: politic as a means of order.
by Lény ESCOBAR (INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE MONTESQUIEU)
The defense will take place at 14h00 - Salle des thèses 16 avenue Léon Duguit 33600 Pessac
in front of the jury composed of
- Patrick TROUDE-CHASTENET - Professeur émérite - Université de Bordeaux - Directeur de these
- Thierry GONTIER - Professeur des universités - Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 - Rapporteur
- Thierry MéNISSIER - Professeur des universités - Université Grenoble Alpes IPHIG - Rapporteur
- Frédérique RUEDA - Professeure des universités - Université de Bordeaux - Examinateur
The thesis put forward could be summed up in a single simple proposition: politic is a means of ordering the world. Whilst this formulation may not be sufficient, it leaves no doubt as to the definitional perspective adopted or the subject of research: politics. Consequently, this work will argue that politics is an intermediate reality defined by its powers. Taken in this way, the thesis in question may seem obscure, which is not unrelated to the definitional perspective: in summarizing the work carried out, a large part of the discourse is absent. Whilst this work places the classic question ‘what is politics?' at its heart, it is equally shaped by the starting point from which this thesis emerges. Indeed, by employing the phrase ‘the tearing apart of the world', we begin from the premise that politics is merely one means among others of ordering the world. Without knowledge of, or control over, its origin and end, the political would be, strictly speaking, an intermediary present in this world. But whilst it is merely a means, it cannot be anything: it would be precisely a means, an intermediary, with its own reality. By supporting the genuine unity of politics, the aim is to examine the multiple and seemingly contradictory meanings attributed to it. At the same time, the aim is to demonstrate that the classic question ‘what is politics?' remains a topical and multifaceted issue which, even when defined in specific terms, can be approached in many different ways.This work therefore proposes to conceive of the political according to no chronology other than its own. This path is not without its difficulties, ranging from the possibility of conceiving of politics to that of defining this work. In this sense, in proposing this thesis, we cannot avoid the boundaries of the political, right down to the identification of this type of work. Furthermore, we shall seek to argue that an interest in borders proves fruitful when we examine the relationship between politics – specifically in the sense of political science – and the political.To this end, we propose to begin by focusing on myth. Why myth? Myth has a primary value of self-objection, stemming from the notion of the world's fragmentation, whilst we can find it in a diffuse form within political studies. By adopting a comparative approach, we shall seek to identify the meaning of myth from a political perspective; a meaning that will be termed ‘mythical' to define the scope of the study. The value of the mythical lies in offering a mode of expression with heuristic value: far from being mere fabrication, the mythical plays a part in teaching and persuasion. We thus arrive at the hypothesis that the mythical concerns both politics and political science. In order to address this particular hypothesis effectively, we shall draw on a modest genealogy of the political, seeking to trace its origin and its end. This approach, now widely adopted, stems from the idea that we can divide the political into its constituent moments. By examining various terms used to denote origin and end, such as initium or death, we shall identify the origin of the political in ‘the art of governing' and its end in its autonomy. However, it is only through a third phase, which aims to revisit origin and end, that we can argue that the political is an intermediate reality—that is, a produced reality that is neither purely intelligible nor purely sensible. This approach paves the way for a third section, which will focus on bringing together and summarizing the preceding sections by examining the concept of power. It is by dividing power into three political powers—maintaining, limiting and governing—that we shall be able to grasp and understand famous concepts of political science, such as those of the State or the Law, in a different light. It is with the help of this final framework that we shall succeed in upholding this simple thesis: politic is a means of ordering the world.