Contenu du sommaire : L'exception américaine

L'exception américaine

• Dictature sur le prolétariat. - Rick Fantasia
• Une prospérité précaire. Sur les situations financières critiques dans la classe moyenne. - Teresa A. Sullivan
• Politics is money. - Dan Clawson
  Politics is money Une des contradictions de base des démocraties capitalistes est que, dans la sphère politique, les individus sont supposés être égaux et disposer chacun d'une seule voix

  Politics is money One of the basic contradictions in capitalist democracies is that, in the political sphere, people are supposed to be equal and to have one vote apiece, whereas in the market those with the most money are supposed to have the most influence. Yet it is impossible to draw a solid line between the political and economic spheres. In the US, money has never carried as much weight in political life as it does today. Aside from the almost total subservience of the
• Citoyens américains, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains ! - Eric Brian
  Yet another effort citizens of America, if you would become republicans! For 36 days a legitimate uncertainty hovered over the ballot count for the 2000 US presidential election. It was an opportunity to study, in almost laboratory conditions, the social mechanisms involved in forming a numerical abstraction. A temporary symbolic revolution was reconstituted, characterized by the social suspension of calculations, owing to the uncertain situation. During this time, the principal stake in the political struggle was the construction of the social time befitting the resolution of this uncertainty in a socially acceptable form. In the end, the only point of agreement was the judicial technology which would eventually lead to resolution of the conflict. The present study also casts doubt on the spontaneous political philosophy in force in a good many pieces of social science.
• Pensionnats d'élite. Ethnographie d'une transmission de pouvoir. - Caroline H. Persell
  Pensionnats d'élite. Ethnographie d'une transmission de pouvoir Faire ses études dans un internat privé aux États-Unis est depuis toujours un excellent moyen d'accéder aux postes de décision. Bien qu'elles accueillent moins de 1 % des lycéens, ces institutions forment un nombre dispropor- tionnellement élevé de personnalités marquantes dans le monde des affaires, de la politique et de la culture. Traditionnels et conservateurs, les lycées privés constituent une institution typiquement américaine qui n'a pas d'équivalent, en partie puritaine, en partie anglaise, en partie « Wall Street ».

  Elite boarding-schools Ethnography of one kind of power transmission Having gone to a private boarding-school, or prep-school as they are known, in the United States has always been an excellent path to a job as a decision-maker. Although these institutions account for less than 1 % of all high- school enrollment, they turn out a disproportionately high number of outstanding figures in the world of business, politics and culture. Traditional and conservative, prep- schools are a typically American institution ; part puritanical, part English, part Wall Street, they have no equivalent anywhere . They played an important role in forming and maintaining a dominant class in America because they accepted both East-Coast patricians and parvenus. The collective identity forged in these prep-schools thus lays the foundations of an aristocratic solidarity and consciousness. Between 1978 and 1983, the authors visited 55 such boarding schools throughout the US. They spent five days in each, attending classes, assemblies, chapel, games, cultural
• "L'Amérique, ça marche ! Notes sur une agence d'emploi privée à New York. - Frédéric Viguier
• Des jeunes corvéables. L'organisation du travail et la gestion du personnel dans un fast-food. - Christophe Brochier