State

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani approaches the State through a distinction taken from Michel Clouscard, which he maintains from 2012 to 2025: the State is not the state apparatus. The word refers both to what increases freedom and to what oppresses. The state forest, which belongs to everyone, stands against the "private property" sign, which deprives1. He reserves the word "State" for Rousseau's general will, an organic whole, and calls the police, the army and the closed circles of power the "state apparatus". From this he draws a paradox of the present: the most powerful state apparatus in history serves the absence of the State, which is the private2. He dismisses both the libertarians and the MEDEF employers' federation, who together denounce "too much State", while the Yellow Vests protest against its retreat3. He links this critique to the libertarian liberalism that came out of May 68 and to Hegel's civil society4. He also rereads Antigone with Hegel: the tragedy does not set the individual against the State but the family against the city. The State oversteps its missions when it attacks funeral rites5.

1. 1ÉTAT ET APPAREIL D'ÉTAT - Le conflit du public et du privé29 Aug 2025
2. 2D. Pagani / Réponse de M. Clouscard à C. Morilhat • Seconde Partie10 Sept 2019
3. 3#15 • Retour aux logiques du sujet23 Jul 2020
4. 4[ENTRETIEN] DOMINIQUE PAGANI - Michel Clouscard et la trahison de mai 687 Feb 2025
5. 5La PHILO avec PAGANI : A comme ANTIGONE20 Mar 2023

Introduction produced automatically from the 9 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.