Sur le principe de solidarité

Abstract

The present period is marked by the projection on to a transnational level of the categories ofthought which have carried the expansion of capitalism in each country which is called »developed«. Like all the juridical notions which have accompanied this development of industrial capitalism, solidarity was born and developed in a national juridical setting, and it is in this setting that it will therefore be necessary to situate it in order to understand its place in the juridical constructions of the providential state. But while the principle of solidarity is thus rooted in the experience of national legal systems, its future will depend on the fate reserved for it at an international level. The mechanisms of solidarity are today menaced by the destabilisation of the national settings where they have flourished. However, this setback in the cause of national solidarities could paradoxically lead to the affirmation of the principle of solidarity at the international level.