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UNDERSTANDING POLICY CONSEQUENCES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS TARGETED BENEFICIARIES THE RECEPTION OF PUBLIC POLICYUnlike other stages of the public policy process such as agenda-setting or implementation, political science has paid relatively little attention to the moment when public action has tangible consequences on the ordinary individuals who were the intended targets of a given policy. By looking at the idea of policy reception, we examine both the direct effects of policies and their appropriation by individuals, including objective and subjective dimensions. In this article, we first establish the theoretical and methodological implications of this approach and then identify two complementary modalities to study reception processes, which vary according to the scale of analysis: policy instruments and public policy sectors.

CONTESTED INSTRUMENTS THE EMERGENCE AND INFLUENCE OF CRITICISM ON RESEARCH GOVERNANCE INSTRUMENTS IN FRANCE (1961-2015)This article examines the debate that arose surrounding recent reforms of research governance, and more specifically, regarding changes to project funding and academic rankings. However, these reforms were implemented for a relatively long time before they began to be criticised: how can we explain the lag between when these instruments were created and the subsequent emergence of protest movements? Reciprocally, have critiques influenced the trajectory of these instruments, and if so, to what extent? In this article, we shall demonstrate that the appearance of critiques and their influence on policy instruments can be explained by contemporary social movements and the transformations they produced in the policy sphere.

IS POLITICAL LIBERALISM SELF-DEFEATING?
In a two-fold argument, this article argues that, as a framework for justification, political liberalism is self-defeating. First of all, political liberalism's self-imposed criterion of acceptability in the eyes of all reasonable individuals leads to a regressive logic in the substantive content of overlapping consensus. Secondly, we argue that the search for consensus is intrinsically controversial, due to the fact that it draws its inspiration from Hegel's impermissibly contentious project of rational reconciliation. Via comparative readings of Nussbaum, Rawls and Oakeshott, this article concludes that political liberalism is undermined at the outset by its own self-imposed imperative to remain free from controversial commitments.

USEFULNESS AND SECURITY IN JEREMY BENTHAM'S INTERNATIONAL THOUGHTTo this day, Jeremy Bentham's international thought remains little known and largely misunderstood. Because they focus excessively on Bentham's seminal essay “A Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace,“ commentators generally associate Bentham with the liberal tradition, either lavishing him with the expected praise or on the contrary, criticising his supposed naivety. In doing so, they misconstrue some essential aspects of Bentham's thinking, in particular his constant desire to reconcile the two jealous antagonists of freedom and security. In reality, Bentham managed to elaborate a fragile synthesis between liberal principles and considerations of political realism, which grants him a singular place in the historical efforts to systematically define the conditions of peace and international security.