The French State in Question

by H. S. Jones

Overview

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 accepted views 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 unionize, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521431491
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/17/1992
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Stuart Jones is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Manchester. He has written widely on British and French intellectual history and political thought, chiefly of the nineteenth century. His books include The French State in Question (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Victorian Political Thought (2000), and Intellect and Character in Victorian England: Mark Pattison and the Invention of the Don (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He also edited Comte: Early Political Writings for the Cambridge Texts in Political Thought series (Cambridge University Press, 1998). He is currently Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (2008–9).

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"Richly documented, with an extensive, select bibliography and excellent index, this is a highly readable study of the social perspectives that made the conflicy between the right to associate and the rights of the state so central to the definition of French political realities and so difficult to resolve." Tobin H. Jones, French Review

"...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

From the Publisher