Journée organisée par le Centre de recherches historiques (CRH) et son équipe de recherche AHMOC (Approches historiques des mondes contemporains)
avec le soutien de la FMSH (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme)

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris
October 1, 2007

Salle 214, 54 boulevard Raspail

Models of state-building have long drawn from two distinct and competing forms. While the American case has been the great exemplar of a feeble state, the French model has stood as the ideal-type of a centralized all-powerful administrative apparatus. In recent years, the solidity of these types has been called into question as the stateless American past has proved a myth and given way to an interpretation based on a robust set of institutions in fields of governmental regulation such as public safety, political economy and public health. Similarly, the triumph of the French state has proven a far more fragile process. Historians have uncovered a strong civil society tradition within the French political model and reconsidered the ostensible opposition between an autonomous administrative apparatus and a responsive political sphere. This conference will bring specialists from both sides of the Atlantic working on the fields of French and American state history. The aim is to create a dialogue on the new directions in state history by offering complementary approaches to the history of the state within the fields of social, legal and political history.

Cette rencontre scientifique autour des travaux de William Novak se veut l’occasion de débattre des renouveaux de l’historiographie de l’Etat en France et aux Etats-Unis. Réunissant historiens et politistes son objectif est de dépasser les visions trop habituelles sur l’Etat faible américain ou sur l’Etat jacobin français. A partir de la discussion de la recherche en cours de W. Novak par des spécialistes français de l’histoire nord américaine et par des historiens travaillant sur l’Etat en France, on cherche à faire se croiser les perspectives historiographiques sur des objets aujourd’hui reconsidérés par l’histoire politique.

La journée d’étude se déroulera principalement en langue anglaise.

Morning Session: 10h-12h30

Introduction
Stephen Sawyer (University of Chicago) and Alain Chatriot (CNRS, CRH-AHMOC)

William Novak (University of Chicago/American Bar Foundation):
"The Myth of the Weak American State"

Pierre Rosanvallon (Collège de France) : Response to William Novak

Afternoon Session: 14h-17h

Paul-Andre Rosental (EHESS, CRH-AHMOC)
"Is there such a thing as national migration policy? The state and the test of mobility"

Marc-Olivier Baruch (EHESS, CRH-AHMOC)
“'Statel inside' : The Core of Administrative Power in Twentieth Century France”

Romain Huret (University of Lyon II)
“Antistatism or the invention of an American tradition (1890-1920)"

Daniel Sabbagh (CERI, Sciences-Po)
“Euphemizing Transformative State Action: Race-Conscious Policies in American Political Development”