{"id":18450,"date":"2023-01-25T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T10:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/?p=18450"},"modified":"2023-01-25T10:49:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T10:49:35","slug":"the-principle-of-solidarity-between-sentiment-and-reason-a-reflection-starting-from-l-bourgeois-solidarism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nome.unak.is\/wordpress\/volume-17-no-5-2023\/article-triple-blind-peer-review\/the-principle-of-solidarity-between-sentiment-and-reason-a-reflection-starting-from-l-bourgeois-solidarism\/","title":{"rendered":"The principle of solidarity between sentiment and reason: a reflection starting from L. Bourgeois’ solidarism."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/i><\/span> <\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

It is not easy to find a unique meaning of the term solidarity. The term can indicate several meanings at the same time: it can indicate a legal term – the legal obligatory condition of a relationship with several debtors or with several creditors; it can indicate a feeling of fraternity that arises from a common belonging and leads us to behaviours of mutual help and altruism; it can indicate an ethical concept that leads us to share purposes and responsibilities with others. A polysemous term, therefore. But this plurality must not overshadow the complex theoretical and practical elaboration that its development presupposed, particularly within the theory of solidarists. To address the issue of solidarity, without missing this complexity, let me take Leon Bourgeois’ La Solidarit\u00e9<\/em>, published in 1896,[1]<\/a> as starting point for my reflection. This text could be considered as manifesto of solidarism.<\/p>\n

L\u00e9on Bourgeois (1851-1925) is not very well known outside of France. He formulated the doctrine of solidarism which he tried to implement by making solidarity the basis of society. A jurist, radical politician, and theoretician of solidarity under the Third French Republic, he also served numerous influential roles as a politician and diplomat. He was nine times minister (Public Education, Labour, Foreign Affairs, etc.), Prime Minister in 1895, President of the Senate (1920 -1923). His short-lived cabinet in 1895, was overthrown for tabling a bill creating an income tax, as Member of Parliament, then senator he played an important role in the voting of the first social protection laws (industrial accidents, pensions\u2026). He was member of many social reform associations and was among the founders of the League of Nations, and its first president.\u00a0 He also led the French delegation to the League of Nations until his death. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920 for this work.<\/p>\n

At first glance, the purpose of addressing this seemingly outdated solidarist idea might be questionable. The idea of founding a \u201cjust republic\u201d, to develop a third way between liberal individualism, and socialism or collectivism[2]<\/a>, is no longer relevant in this current day. Yet, I believe returning to Bourgeois’ reflections could help us clarify the current use and abuse of the term solidarity, as it often carries the risk of being lost in the empty banality of rhetoric.<\/p>\n

The term Solidarity occurs more than twenty times in the body of treaties of the European Union reformed in Lisbon in 2007[3]<\/a>. In this tally we did not account for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union<\/em>, where an entire body of articles (27 – 38), indicated with chapter IV, is titled “solidarity” which thus becomes part of the fundamental values of the Union.<\/p>\n

But the difference between the official text of treaties and the reality of its implementation is further evident when we consider the growing forms of inequalities that undermine social cohesion both in Europe, in the United States of America and other Western countries. To cite just one\u00a0study: Ipsos’ 2020 research on the Social Cohesion Index (ISCI) finds that nearly twice as many global citizens are “weak” rather than “solid” in their sense of social cohesion and concludes that social cohesion is under attack globally.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

And if, as Durkheim affirmed, solidarity is equivalent to the set of values, practices and norms that ensure cohesion in society, we cannot say that the use, even excessive, of the term solidarity in the European Treaties, has produced its implementation in effective public policies. So, it seems that the term solidarity has lost its propositional force. Precisely for this reason, it could be interesting to return to one of the first elaborations from when the term was a key idea capable of generating actions.<\/p>\n

Genealogy of a polysemic term: from juridical meaning to feeling and bond<\/strong><\/p>\n

Solidarity is a fairly recent term. The terminus technicus of Roman law, “in solidum teneri” and “in solidum obligari” became in French “solidarit\u00e9” without losing its original legal meaning. That is, it indicates an obligation for which various debtors undertake to pay for each other and each for all an amount borrowed or otherwise owed. In this juridical meaning of responsibility in solidum the word solidaire <\/em>is already registered in the Dictionnaire de l’Acad\u00e9mie fran\u00e7aise<\/em> of 1694.[5]<\/a> Still, in the first edition of 1751 of the Encyclop\u00e9die<\/em> by Diderot and d’Alembert, \u201csolidarit\u00e9\u201d is legally defined as the quality of an obligation. This is a legal definition that we also find in, in the 1835 edition of Dictionnaire de l’Acad\u00e9mie<\/em> fran\u00e7aise. Although the lemma of the 1835 edition ends by stating that “It is sometimes said, in everyday language, of the mutual responsibility that is established between two or more people”.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

The dictionaries attests that the term solidarity begins to come into use in its modern meaning in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1840 the philosopher Pierre Leroux indicated in the “the mutual solidarity of all human beings”[7]<\/a> \u00a0the most authentic expression of charity, and in 1842 Hyppolyte Renaud published under the title of Solidarit\u00e9[8]<\/a> \u00a0the presentation of Charles Fourier’s social views and proposals.<\/p>\n

The modern meaning of the term becomes increasingly popular, so much so that in the mid-nineteenth century it\u2019s imported to England, although not without changes in meaning that are still current. In fact, as Alain Supiot mentions, reporting the testimony of Guy Braibant, during the drafting of the Constitutional Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the British delegate argued that the English word solidarity did not have the same meaning as the respective translations into the continental languages, and thusly the notion of solidarity in the continental sense had no equivalent in English.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

A complex term, therefore, which in any case was used in France as early as the 1830s and 1840s, in the meaning of social bond by the founding fathers of sociology, Auguste Comte and \u00c9mile Durkheim.<\/p>\n

In Discours sur esprit positif<\/em> (1844) A. Comte talks about social solidarity as an \u201cintimate feeling\u201d of \u201cthe bond of each to all… extended to all times and all places\u201d [10]<\/a>, a feeling that new positive philosophy must make “involontairement familier”[11]<\/a> \u00a0Unwillingly and subconsciously familiar.<\/p>\n

And it is to A. Comte that L\u00e9on Bougeois explicitly links himself when he places the idea of debt at the basis of his quasi-contract: “the human being is born a debtor of human association”.[12]<\/a> But the affirmed “the bond of each to all\u201d the bond of solidarity is defined by Bourgeois not with reference to Comte, but to Kant to the concept of organism expressed in the third critique already announced three years previous in the writing “\u00dcber den Gebrauch teleologischer Principien in der Philosophie<\/em>“, where Kant proposes a teleological perspective, which, although it does not make known anything more than what is already known, allows us to think, and therefore understand both the organism and \u00a0nature as a whole.,:<\/p>\n

“The concept of an organized being already implies that it is a matter in which everything is reciprocally related to each of its parts as an end and a means\u201d[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bourgeois takes Kant almost literally:\u00a0\u201cAccording to Kant, it is precisely this \u201creciprocity between the parts\u201d which constitutes the organism, where everything is both \u201cend and means.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

What does this reference to Kant imply? Firstly, the distancing from the idea that the organic whole is a closed and self-centred totality where the good of the whole comes before the parts of which it is composed. At the same time, the assertion that imagining society on the model of this organic whole, where the parts are expendable for the good of the whole, is outdated. The reference to Kant’s concept of organism reveals in addition that this concept is assumed as a guiding idea in the research of facts, in analogy and not in identity with the idea of solidarity[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bourgeois\u2019 solidarity: Reciprocity<\/strong><\/p>\n

The relationship of reciprocity is fundamental both inside the organism, and outside in the relationship of organisms with their environment:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese relationships of reciprocal dependence between the parts of living beings, exist between the beings themselves too and, also between all of these beings and the environment in which they are placed\u201d<\/em>[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

The whole depends on the parts, as well as the parts on the whole: each part is an end and a means. The purely instrumental relationship of the part to the whole is outdated because each individual must be considered by the others as an end.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Kantian reference, Bourgeois can therefore rethink the relationship between the individual and society in a biological imaginary which, as has been said,[17]<\/a> \u00a0is in radical discontinuity with two traditions: the tradition that makes individual interests prevail excessively over collective ones and the tradition that affirms the logical and axiological primacy of the collective over the individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human being is no longer an end for himself and for the world: he is both an end and a means. He is a unit, and he is part of a whole. He is a being having his own life and having the right to preserve and develop this life.\u201d<\/em>[18]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is how Bourgeois responds to the question of whether there is a contradiction between the law of solidarity and the law of free development of the individual. There is no contradiction because:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actions of the two laws are coordinated\u2014and there is a necessary and sufficient condition for this coordination: the cooperation of individuals in the common action”<\/em>.[19]<\/a><\/p>\n

In this new biological imaginary, the parts, he says, are individuals who \u201cdevelop, and yet their development contributes to the development of the organism they compose; they evolve, and their evolution is a function of collective evolution. They are, in a word, associated, and their association contributes not only to the development of the whole that they form, but also to the development of each of them.\u201d<\/em>[20]<\/a><\/p>\n

The bond of reciprocal dependence is not always positive for the individual, as the biological model inspired by Pasteur’s theories highlights: “his (the human being’s) health is constantly threatened by the illnesses of other human beings whose life is in turn threatened by the illnesses he\/she will contract himself”<\/em>[21]<\/a><\/p>\n

The contagious disease model shows the risk every individual is exposed: relationships of “natural solidarity” left to themselves can be deadly.<\/p>\n

Solidarists do not attach any value to social theories derived from Darwinism, indeed when they speak of it, it is to denounce its moral errors.<\/p>\n

Bourgeois knew well how the struggle for existence discovered by the natural science in the second half of the nineteenth century, made the concept of competition the central value in sociology. The mechanism of natural selection of the \u00abfittest\u00bb brought to the individualist thesis the most powerful arguments to justify the laws of social competition.[22]<\/a><\/p>\n

For Bourgeois, the lesson of microbiological pathology shows how “vital” competition is ambiguous: it is good for the individual if it is the strongest, and therefore it is a means of fixing the qualities useful for the species, bad for the individual itself if it is the weak and therefore necessarily succumbs. If we want to develop social relationships that defend the existence and safety of all individuals, we need to pay attention to the weakest.<\/p>\n

Despite solidarists use the biological imaginary, it is very clear to them that human society cannot be assimilated to the community of living organisms:<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman society is not an organism similar to the animal organism; it does not constitute a living being where the parts are, as in the biological aggregate, materially united to one another\u201d<\/em>[23]<\/a><\/p>\n

In other words, the order of societies isn\u2019t self-regulated.<\/p>\n

Even if solidarists affirm a factual solidarity, they don\u2019t derive the normative sense of solidarity from this fact: Bourgeois himself states it very clearly \u201cSolidarity as fact, solidarity as duty: never confuse the one with the other\u201d \u201cSolidarit\u00e9 fait, solidarit\u00e9 devoir: ne confondons jamais l\u2019une et l\u2019autre\u201d[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is why the individuals shaping an association must respond to the risks of natural and factual solidarity with a consciously pursued solidarity, if they want to keep the individual in a state “of prosperity, security, even existence” [25]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, a key problem appears: how to implement this conscious solidarity, and therefore responsibly respond to the risk which vital competition exposes us to? We must correct the “negative solidarity”: the forms of social solidarity must be thought in discontinuity with the natural ones. For this reason, according to Bourgeois, the individuals who shape the association must recognize the duty of justice. The question is how delineating \u201ca specific rule of the rights and duties of each person, in the common action of all\u201d [26]<\/a><\/p>\n

To do this, Bourgeois refers once more to Kant, to the Kantian notion of duty. The duty of obeying the law for respect of law, however, is immediately understood through the Swiss philosopher Charles Secretan, and his affirmation that the knowledge of the good that the conscience prescribes is the work of reason, but reason develops historically. And, not secondarily, the Kantian foundation of the moral law, the Kantian universalism is further enriched with a classical reference. The reference is to Cicero’s De legibus<\/em>: where Cicero “affirms the existence” of a law that is common to all human beings, which commands virtue and forbids injustice “.[27]<\/a><\/p>\n

Let me mention that in the De legibus <\/em>Cicero expresses the intimate need for a moral transformation of Roman society and its ruling class. This renewal must be carried out through the implementation of a political-cultural program. The practice of conscious solidarity requires a political-cultural reform, in which the development of institutions and moral development go together.<\/p>\n

Debt and the quasi-contract<\/strong><\/p>\n

What form can the rule of justice take? To answer this question Bourgeois developed a new theory of the social pact which, as has been said, is the foundation of social right[28]<\/a>. As already mentioned, Bourgeois developed his argument from Auguste Comte’s idea that the social bond is the bond of all human beings, dead, living now and in the future. The law of reciprocal physical and moral dependence binds everyone to everything: biologically as we have seen; economically, in the mutual profit of the work indispensable for the satisfaction of the needs; in thinking: “the human being thinks, and each of his thoughts reflects the thought of his fellows in whose brains it will be reflected and reproduced in turn\u201d; in feeling “He is happy or he suffers, he hates or he loves, and all his feelings are the effects or the causes of congruent or contrary feelings which stir at the same time all these other men with whom he is in a relationship of perpetual exchange\u201d. [29]<\/a><\/p>\n

This bond is not only about the present, it binds us to the past and the future. Coming into the world is not a simple biological fact. Coming into the world means sharing a world already humanized by language, culture, technology, institutions. It also means changing this humanized world, as a legacy for future generations.<\/p>\n

“Human being is born debtor of human association”.[30]<\/a> \u00a0“(The debt) is a legacy of all the past to all of the future” [31]<\/a><\/p>\n

Every human being receives an inheritance by birth. Every human being is therefore born with a load of cultural, material, and scientific debt that they must recognize. This heritage is not the same for everyone: physical, mental, social, national, historical differences make the distribution of the human heritage unequal. Hence the duty to correct the injustice of those who receive a negative legacy.<\/p>\n

How to decide what is the sum to be paid by whoever is in debt? How to determine this in solidum obligatio<\/em>, whereby whoever is in debt undertakes to pay what he has received in usufruct? Bourgeois himself asks: “Who then will set this account of profits and losses, benefits and charges?”[32]<\/a><\/p>\n

This obligation is based on the quasi-contract of association, which is a way of proceeding to reach consensus on the conditions of the association that “distributes fairly the advantages and charges among all and (the distribution) will be those which the partners would have adopted if they had previously been free, and equally free, to discuss among themselves, with equal morality, the conditions of their agreements.”[33]<\/a><\/p>\n

The use of the term quasi-contract should be emphasized: let me clarify meaning: the quasi-contract is a juridical concept of obligation of Justinian code. It includes all those obligations deriving from a lawful relationship that had affinity with a specific type of contract but based on an informal agreement. The term derives, in fact, from the expression obligatio quasi ex contractu<\/em>, ‘obligation as per contract’. The quasi-contract category has reached the Code Napol\u00e9on which places them among the “commitments without treaty ” and defines them in art. 1371 “The quasi-contracts are the purely voluntary facts of human beings, which result in any obligation towards a third party, sometimes a reciprocal obligation of the two parties”[34]<\/a><\/p>\n

By using the term quasi-contract, Bourgeois wants to detach himself from the classical theory of the contract. This defines once and for all the question of the division of power, establishing a “prior agreement\u201d as he expressly says in a critical note on Rousseau. He wants to define obligations in the absence of a treaty and therefore to express that the solution of the socio-political problem of solidarity it is always provisional.<\/p>\n

The quasi-contract is “an interpretation and representation of the agreement which should have been established in advance between them (human beings) if they had been able to be fairly and freely consulted: it will therefore be the presumption of the consent which their equal and free wills would have given which will be the only basis of right\u201d [35]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Marie-Claude Blais, Bourgeois\u2019 quasi-contract concept was, in a different way, re-launched by John Rawls, with the original position playing a central role in formulating a theory of justice. The function seems the same: the quasi-contract places the associates “in a sort of” original position “of equivalence.” Whatever the inequalities of condition, the quasi-social contract presupposes an “equality of value” among all individuals.[36]<\/a> As human beings each has the same equal right as all others.<\/p>\n

However, the equality of solidarity is not an abstract form of egalitarianism: we have seen in the citations the insistence on the term fairly. By means of fairness, the unequal distribution of social burdens, due to birth, historical contingencies, biological conditions, are thus corrected with attention to concrete situations.<\/p>\n

Solidarity: A possible social principle instead of competition?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We saw how Bourgeois took position against the theses of economists (individualists) who, on the basis of the science of evolution, explained the laws of social competition as a natural factor and thus made economic competition one of the natural forms of vital competition. [37]<\/a> Quoting the conference of 1895 “Les Pr\u00e9jug\u00e9s socialistes<\/em>” by Yves Guyot, Bourgeois mentions that for classical liberalism competition is the very condition of life, and society must not intervene to modify and reduce the inequality of its members [38]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bourgeois does not respond to classical liberalism’s anthropological naturalism with another, but, and the Kantian reference reveals it, he proposes a counter-image based on reciprocity. The Kantian counter-image moves away from the purely instrumental reading of relationships and has a strong ethical significance.<\/p>\n

As such, reciprocal relationships are not a simple natural fact. In other words, the order of society does not regulate itself, but requires an implementation by a political rationality whose guiding principle becomes solidarity. In this way solidarity could take the place of competition in the current formation of a new social subjectivity.<\/p>\n

To clarify this point, I will refer to the analyses that M. Foucault developed in the courses held between 1977-79 at the Coll\u00e8ge de France on that new form of liberal political rationality which he himself called neoliberalism.[39]<\/a>As we know Foucault tackles the issue through the reading of two distinct currents of economic thought that have in common the criticism of the dirigiste economy: the Neoliberal School of Freiburg, and the libertarianism of the United States , which finds its purest expression in Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Gary Becker, Milton Friedman and many economists of the Chicago school. Foucault talks about the invention of a “reason of the least state”[40]<\/a> (\u00ab raison du moindre Etat \u00bb) which claims that the state is ” under the supervision of the market rather than a market supervised by the states” [41]<\/a><\/p>\n

Foucault clearly warns us: we must not confuse classical liberalism with this new form of political rationality:<\/p>\n

“For we should not be under any illusion that today\u2019s neo-liberalism is, as is too often said, the resurgence* or recurrence of old forms of liberal economics which were formulated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and are now being reactivated by capitalism”<\/em>[42]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What then is the specific of this further form of liberalism? Foucault explains this clearly: “Here, laissez-faire is turned into a do-not-laisser-faire government, in the name of a law of the market which will enable each of its activities to be measured and assessed.”<\/em> [43]<\/a><\/p>\n

In other words, for neoliberalism, public policy no longer has the task of correcting any negative effects of the market, on the contrary it is the market with its operating mechanisms that corrects public and social policies. The market takes on the task of verifying what is true and what is false, and of promoting a human model based on the principles of economic processes.<\/p>\n

At the centre of this new function of the market there is no longer free trade, but competition which in turn becomes the regulating principle of social, public, and private, behaviour. The role of the state becomes to promote competition conceived as an idea to be implemented and to make society and its members able to face the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you deduce the principle of laissez-faire from the market economy, basically you are still in the grip of what could be called a \u201cnaive naturalism,\u201d that is to say, whether you define the market by exchange or by competition you are thinking of it as a sort of given of nature, something produced spontaneously which the state must respect precisely inasmuch as it is a natural datum. But\u2026what in fact is competition? It is absolutely not a given of nature\u2026competition is not the result of a natural interplay of appetites, instincts, behaviour, and so on\u2026Competition is an essence. Competition is an eidos. Competition is a principle of formalization\u2026 competition as an essential economic logic will only appear and produce its effects under certain conditions which have to be carefully and artificially constructed\u2026 Pure competition must and can only be an objective, an objective thus presupposing an indefinitely active policy.<\/em>\u201d[44]<\/a><\/p>\n

Competition is not thought of as a natural fact whose development can be sustained by eliminating obstacles and correcting their deviations. Competition according to Foucault is a principle of formalization, that is to say it is the abstract syntax that supports a procedure with which the new system of symbols is built; in other words, it is an idea to be implemented with a continuous action at all levels, both public and private. The state must ensure that its members acquire the ability to compete, even by competing with each other.<\/p>\n

To fine-tune this new anthropological model, the American neoliberalism will develop the notion of “human capital”. By human capital the US- neoliberalists mean the individual who transforms himself into an enterprise-unit. Individual turns itself into an entrepreneur of himself, who agonistically relates to the market in the same way as an entrepreneur with his business. In this way, the neoliberal biopolitical government makes the enterprise as \u201ca model of social relations and of existence itself, a form of relationship of the individual to himself” [45]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The life of the individual, in its entirety, is absorbed by the market, where the principle of competition reigns. Therefore, any kind of human behaviour must be oriented towards profitability, and the individual is thus directed towards a new form of subjectivity. At the core of this social and anthropological model is the principle of competition, whose engine is inequality.<\/p>\n

The market mechanism must include all subjects to function[46]<\/a>, and it is here that the model presents an ambiguity, just mentioned by Foucault, who however does not examine the question in depth. This is the ambiguity highlighted by Wilhem R\u00f6pke when he states that competition is the central principle of the market economy, but it cannot be the principle on which to build the whole society, since it is a dissolving principle.[47]<\/a><\/p>\n

Competition mentions Foucault is a \u201cformal game between inequalities\u201d. This is why it is a principle that splits, rather than binds individuals together. In a society where the competitive individual is its fundamental anthropological model, the action of the state to keep the market in optimal conditions must prevent exclusion, understood as the primary factor that places social subjects out of competition.<\/p>\n

However, the new needs of competitiveness ultimately bring out two forms of human capital; the “strong” one who have acquired high skills, knowledge, professional skills, social and relational skills, and therefore are favoured, and those who do not have all this, and therefore, are easily excluded. Today, social exclusion is a huge, if not growing problem.[48]<\/a> This raises the problem of the validity of the social and anthropological generalization of the enterprise model and presents the need to develop a new model.<\/p>\n

If competitiveness is not a natural given, but is the product of a specific governmental form, historically identifiable, it is conceivable being able to modify it. That is, it is conceivable to set another objective that presupposes another policy. It is conceivable that a different governmental form whose principle is solidarity based on interdependence, in function of fighting inequalities. For this reason, Bourgeois’s principle of solidarity is of great interest as an alternative principle to competition, and as regulating principle of social behaviour. Reciprocity concretely brings the individual into social relations and prevents that the individual is conceived metaphysically as an abstract entity, since individual is constantly evolving in relation to others.<\/p>\n

This relationship involves risks: disease, damage, death. Solidarity is the principle that regulates social behaviour and defends against risks: we join together because everyone’s activity is useful for the survival and well-being of each and every one.<\/p>\n

Starting from the emotional bases of sociality, solidarity – as a feeling already identified by Comte – is expressed as a feeling of reciprocity, of mutual support between free and equal, but not identical, individuals. Through the \u201cquasi-contract\u201d solidarity is objectified and is transferred from the sphere of sentiment to that of law and politics, without the different being excluded. In this way, the role of the state becomes that of executing the quasi-contract that we have seen implies the recognition of the debt that each individual has towards the other. The role of the state therefore becomes to make subjects capable of sharing the debt and of standing surety for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only indirectly, by obtaining, so to speak beforehand, from each of the human beings, the payment of the social debt, not towards a particular partner, but towards all, that it will be possible to place the contracting parties in a state of equality where their freedom can henceforth be exercised without injustice. Let human beings agree to organize among themselves truly mutual institutions, supported by all and open to all.<\/em>\u201d[49]<\/a><\/p>\n

Solidarity can thus become the new regulating principle of social relations.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026this prior solidarity of social duties and forces which would allow human beings to then exchange fairly the products of their personal activity,\u201d<\/em>[50]<\/a> it becomes reasoned project ability that organizes \u201cTruly mutual institutions, supported by all and open to all, having for their object to assure to all human beings as widely as possible the support of the common force, and to warrant them, as\u00a0 exactly as possible, against the risks of the common life ibidem in a word becomes political rationality\u201d<\/em>.[51]<\/a> Thus solidarity becomes political rationality.<\/p>\n

To conclude. The solidarity of L\u00e9on Bourgeois invites us to reflect on problems that we have begun to glimpse today: the ethical-juridical problems of the quality of our coexistence. Bourgeois’ declared aim was to overcome the dichotomy between liberal “laissez faire” and socialist collectivism: an apparently antiquated problematics, if – as it has been masterfully analysed by Foucault- at the centre of the new liberalism and its new function of the market there is no more free trade, but competition which in turn becomes the regulating principle of social, public, and private behaviour. But competition breaks the bonds of interdependence which, according to Durkheim’s theory, were at the basis of social cohesion. Competition implies a logic of separation that leads, for example, economic, ethnic, or religious groups to turn in on themselves to defend, defend their cultural values or their chances of survival. This is why in a competitive society the lack of social cohesion becomes the problem of problems. Then the thought of the solidarists which, as has been said is complex, subtle, and fragile, can still be captivating. These antiquated solidarists reflected on the articulation of solidarity in relation to the much later idea of the intergenerational pact, the agreement between freedom and justice, and the role of the state and law in a competitive economic world. They propose a path in which solidarity develops from being a moral feeling to a principle that must be implemented consciously and voluntarily, through institutions and regulations, aiming to make solidarity a regulating principle of living together.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Blais M-C. ( 2007), La solidarit\u00e9.\u00a0 Histoire d\u2019une id\u00e9e Gallimard, Paris<\/p>\n

Bourgeois, L. (1896) La solidarit\u00e9, Armand Colin et Cie, Paris<\/p>\n

Bourgeois, L. (1902), Rapport de M. L\u00e9on Bourgeois au Congr\u00e8s D\u2019\u00c9ducation<\/p>\n

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Boutayeb, C. (2011) (ed.), La solidarit\u00e9 dans l\u2019Union europ\u00e9enne. \u00c9l\u00e9ments<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.ipsos.com\/en\/social-cohesion-pandemic-age-global-perspective<\/a> (viewed 02.06.2022)<\/p>\n

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Foucault, M. (2004) Cours au Coll\u00e8ge de France 1977-78, Gallimard, Paris<\/p>\n

Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Coll\u00e8ge de France, 1978-<\/p>\n

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  1. Edited by Michel Senellart. Translated by Graham Burchell, New York: Palgrave MacMillan<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    expos\u00e9e la vraie d\u00e9finition de la religion, et o\u00f9 l’on explique le sens, la suite et l’encha\u00eenement du mosa\u00efsme et du christianisme. Tome 1, Paris, Perrotin<\/p>\n

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     <\/p>\n

    Endnotes\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Bourgeois, Leon. La solidarit\u00e9, Armand Colin et Cie, Paris 1896, p. 116 hereinafter referred to as La solidarit\u00e9, all quotes from the French text are my translations.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> See. \u00a0Gide, Charles., Rist, Charles, Histoire des doctrines \u00e9conomiques (1829), Paris 1920.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> see. de la Rosa, Stephane\u00a0: La transversalit\u00e9 de la solidarit\u00e9 dans les politiques mat\u00e9rielles de l\u2019Union, in Boutayeb, Chahira, (ed. by), La solidarit\u00e9 dans l\u2019Union europ\u00e9enne. \u00c9l\u00e9ments constitutionnels et mat\u00e9riels, Paris, Dalloz, 2011, pp. 165 ss., quoted by Giubboni, Stefano\u00a0: Solidariet\u00e0, in Politica Del Diritto \/ a. XLIII, n. 4, dicembre 2012. p. 526,<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> See: https:\/\/www.ipsos.com\/en\/social-cohesion-pandemic-age-global-perspective<\/a> (viewed 02.06.2022)<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Le dictionnaire de l’Acad\u00e9mie fran\u00e7oise, d\u00e9di\u00e9 au Roy. T. 2. L-Z\u00a0 Vve J. B. Coignard et J. B. Coignard, Paris,1694, p. 485.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Dictionnaire de l’Acad\u00e9mie fran\u00e7aise. Tome 2, Firmin-Didot fr\u00e8res, Paris, 1835, p. 754<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Leroux, Pierre\u00a0: De l’humanit\u00e9, de son principe et de son avenir : o\u00f9 se trouve expos\u00e9e la vraie d\u00e9finition de la religion, et o\u00f9 l’on explique le sens, la suite et l’encha\u00eenement du mosa\u00efsme et du christianisme. Tome 1 \u00a0\u00a0Perrotin, Paris, 1840, p. 179<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Renaud, Hippolyte Solidarit\u00e9<\/em>:\u00a0Vue synth\u00e9tique sur la doctrine de Charles Fourier<\/em>, Paris 1842<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Supiot, Alain : Sur le principe de solidarit\u00e9,\u00a0 Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History , January 2005 (06), p. 67<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Comte, Auguste : Discours sur l’esprit positif, Carilian-Goeury et V. Dalmont, Paris, 1844, p. 74-75<\/p>\n

    [11]<\/a> Ibidem<\/p>\n

    [12]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9, p. 116<\/p>\n

    [13]<\/a> \u00a0Kant, Immanuel: Kant’s gesammelte Schriften. Band 8 \/ herausgegeben von der K\u00f6niglich Preu\u00dfilchen Akademie der Wissenschaften, G. Reimer (Berlin) and W. De Gruyter (Berlin), 1910-1983 b.VIII, p. 179<\/p>\n

    [14]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9, p.44<\/p>\n

    [15]<\/a> See Vincent Gilbert\u00a0: Ethos protestant, \u00e9thique de la solidarit\u00e9. I. L\u2019h\u00e9ritage kantien. Reprises et transformations. In: Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 82e ann\u00e9e n\u00b03, Juillet-Septembre 2002. P. 321<\/p>\n

    doi : https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3406\/rhpr.2002.984<\/a> , https:\/\/www.persee.fr\/doc\/rhpr_0035-2403_2002_num_82_3_984<\/p>\n

    [16]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9. p.45<\/p>\n

    [17]<\/a> See Vincent, Gilbert\u00a0: L\u2019ethique de la solidarit\u00e9\u00a0: l\u2019apport des solidaristes in La solidarit\u00e9 : exigence morale ou obligation publique?, ed. Soulet, Marc-Henry academic press Fribourg, Fribourg, 2004, p. 57<\/p>\n

    [18]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9, p. 84<\/p>\n

    [19]<\/a> Ibid., p. 53<\/p>\n

    [20]<\/a> Ibid., p.54-55<\/p>\n

    [21]<\/a> Ibid. p. 47<\/p>\n

    [22]<\/a> See ibid. p. 39<\/p>\n

    [23]<\/a> Ibid. 60<\/p>\n

    [24]<\/a> Quoted by G. Vincent (2004) op.cit p.68.<\/p>\n

    [25]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9, p. 62<\/p>\n

    [26]<\/a> Ibid.p.72<\/p>\n

    [27]<\/a> Ibid.p.74-75<\/p>\n

    [28]<\/a> See: Ewald, Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0:L’\u00c9tat providence, Paris 1986, p. 367<\/p>\n

    [29]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9 p. 48<\/p>\n

    [30]<\/a> Ibid.p.116<\/p>\n

    [31]<\/a> Ibid.p.124<\/p>\n

    [32]<\/a> Ibid. p.108<\/p>\n

    [33]<\/a> Ibid. p.93<\/p>\n

    [34]<\/a> Code Napol\u00e9on, \u00e9dition originale et seule officielle Imp. imp\u00e9riale (Paris),\u00a01807, p.355<\/p>\n

    [35]<\/a> La solidarit\u00e9 op.cit. p.133.<\/p>\n

    [36]<\/a> \u00a0See Blais Marie-Claire\u00a0: La solidarit\u00e9. \u00a0Histoire d\u2019une id\u00e9e Gallimard, Paris 2007, p. 39<\/p>\n

    [37]<\/a> See. La solidarit\u00e9 op. cit. p. 41.<\/p>\n

    [38]<\/a> See. La solidarit\u00e9 op.cit. p. 142<\/p>\n

    [39]<\/a> See Foucault,Michel: Cours au Coll\u00e8ge de France 1977-78, Gallimard, Paris, 2004, for references; while quotes in English translation are taken from: Foucault,Michel: The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Coll\u00e8ge de France, 1978-1979 . Edited by Senellart, Michel. Translated by Graham Burchell (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008)<\/p>\n

    [40]<\/a> Foucault, Lectures, p. 30<\/p>\n

    [41]<\/a> Ibid. 116<\/p>\n

    [42]<\/a> Ibid. p.117<\/p>\n

    [43]<\/a> Ibid p. 247<\/p>\n

    [44]<\/a> Ibid. p. 120<\/p>\n

    [45]<\/a> Ibid. p. 242<\/p>\n

    [46]<\/a> See ibid. p.207<\/p>\n

    [47]<\/a> See R\u00f6pke, Wilhelm: The Social Crisis of Our Times, Part II, c. 2, p. 236: quoted by Foucault, Lectures p. 243.<\/p>\n

    [48]<\/a> In 2021 in Europe, more than one in 5 people are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This is 21.7% of the population. See https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/web\/products-eurostat-news\/-\/ddn-20220915-1.<\/p>\n

    [49]<\/a> Rapport de M. L\u00e9on Bourgeois au Congr\u00e8s D’ \u00c9ducation Sociale en 1900 in, Bourgeois, Leon – Solidarit\u00e9, 3e \u00e9d., Armand Colin, 1902, p. 180<\/p>\n

    [50]<\/a> idem<\/p>\n

    [51]<\/a> idem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The article traces the process that led to the shift of the concept of solidarity from the domain of feelings to political rationality. Going through the genealogy of the term, its polysemy emerges: from the juridical meaning to the sentiment, sense of the bond and the political rationality suggested by Leon Bourgeois. According to Bourgeois, solidarity is based on the reciprocal relationship that all individuals have among themselves, on the intergenerational debt and on the “quasi contract”. The path proposed by Bourgeois can be a starting point for elaborating a possible social and political principle that is alternative to the neoliberal model of governance centred on competition.<\/p>\n

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