Contenu du sommaire

Power structures and modernization policies in 20th century China, Marie-Claire Bergère To modernize the empire ? The idea never stopped haunting China's leaders. It has however always encountered the same problems, from the New Politics inaugurated in 1901 to Deng Xiaoping's. The article provides a comparative study. The stakes of Chinese modernization go beyond the form of power, whether or not communist. It is not possible to modernize without trusting autonomous social forces, without reforming the State apparatus, without changing the political culture.

The 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation, the joys and sorrows of a commemoration, Rémy Pithon. Switzerland celebrated in 1991 the 700th anniversary of the creation of the Confederation. The preparation of that manifestation coincided with a climate of economie, political and moral crisis in intellectual circles which challenged the very values of the Swiss Republic. The opponents of the celebration committed the error of fighting not the actual celebration of the anniversary but their representation of it. Actually, the 1991 ceremonies displayed a certain cultural boldnes and grave birth to an interesting historiographie production. The popular success confirmed the merits of the initiative, and the quality of the scientific works produced for the occasion showed that the intellectuals' fears were note justifîed.

French academic missions in Brazil in the 1930s, Jean-Paul Lefèvre. When in the early 1930s Brazil sought to acquire modem university structures, it resolutely looked abroad in particular towards France, which had already provided an active cultural and intellectual presence thanks to the efforts of one scholar Georges Dumas. Several French academic missions were sent to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre, especially in the social and human sciences. Young scholars such as François Perroux, Fernand Braudel and Claude Lévi-Strauss had an Brazilian adventure, a rich example of cultural exchange which benefited each of the actors.

French socialists and the problem of pensions (1880-1914), Bruno Dumons, Gilles Pollet. The article examines the place and strength of the problem of workers' retirement, starting from the origins, among French socialists, closely linked to the conquest of free time and rest. The problem of pensions was important in terms of political culture as it forced socialism to reconcile its dreams of emancipation with the State's management role in a modern society.

The Croix-de-Feu and anti-semitism, Richard Millman. Was the League of the Croix-de-Feu an anti-semitic movement? What about the Parti social Français (PSF) after 1936? From a careful reading of the press and many accounts, the author draws a measured conclusion, distinguishing the leaders and their troups, before and after 1933, Paris and peripheric areas such as Alsace-Lorraine and Algeria. Quite clearly the Croix-de-Feu were not structured by anti-semitism, unlike other extreme right movements of the interwar period. But in proportion that is still unknown, many of the leagued members, with skulls against a background of crosses of honor, were antisemit.

The inauguration of the Nice Museum of Modem and Conteporary Art in 1990, Philippe Poirrier. On 8 April 1990, the Franco-American sculptor Annan refused to inaugurate the retrospective of his work at the new Modem and Contemporary Art Museum of Nice in company of Jacques Médecin, mayor of Nice. The reason was the mayor's complecency vis-à-vis the National Front's theses. The incident originated a local and then a national affair that in which the artists, the elected officials of the Côte d'Azur and the minister of Culture, Jack Lang, were involved. The debate clearly illustrates some of the political stakes involved in cultural policies in France.