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Contrary to a frequently assumed thesis, this paper argues that modern politics is not only founded on protection and promotion of human rights, but that its purpose is as well to recreate legitimate powers in a world in which authority can no more be based on nature, tradition or transcendence. This endeavour had for result the development, between 17^th and 20^th centuries, of a coherent set of compromises between liberalism and the proper requirements of power, of which contemporary politics is distant and which is refused by most currents of contemporary thought. So we can consider that we are no more in the "classic era of modernity", which brings to ask the question of the conditions of a new synthesis between liberty and power.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-2702-0_5

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