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ABSTRACTThis article intends to deal with "political" corruption. The particular problem is that, by definition, there is no hierarchical institution (superior to the top level of the State) which is able to control the last controller. The politico-economic model proposed in this article tries to challenge the problem, using a methodology derived from the economic analysis of social conflicts. Based on a voting mechanism of control, the model gives two equilibria: a "good one" (high growth, political stability, low corruption) and a "bad one" (the opposite...). Conditions for controlling corruption are then studied: a political wages strategy added to the voting mechanism gives better solutions.

This article suggests analyzing the reconfigurations of activism through the lenses of digital technology. Our survey focuses on the life narratives of two (ex)members of the French Socialist Party. We shall see that to militate on-line can be considered at the same time as a form of reconversion, an answer to a “critical moment” in a member's trajectory, and a chance at a political career.

Keywords: Internet, militantisme, désengagement, Facebook, parti politique, Internet, militancy, disengagement, Facebook, political party

This article is about the parliamentary election campaign in June 2012 conducted by the French Pirate Party. We examine how this partisan organization–whose particularity is that it relies on cyberculture to define its political approach–is trying to break the rules of the political game. Indeed, the Pirate Party and its activists want to hack politics by designing and practicing it differently. Accordingly, the Pirate campaign is a relevant practical case to understand how the candidates and the Pirate organization are trying to practice politics. We first analyze the sociography of the Pirate candidates and alternates, and then the campaign strategy and organization, as regards both candidates/alternates and the Pirate organization. Finally, we show the political and organizational consequences of this election campaign.

Keywords: Parti Pirate, partis politiques, campagne, cyberculture, engagement, Pirate Party, political parties, campaign, cyberculture, commitment

Our reflections are based on a series of interviews carried out in France, Italy and Japan aimed at elucidating the emotional preparedness of local elected politicians when they take up office. A review of the existing literature on the democracy of emotions leads us to conclude that in spite of the increasing specialisation, diversification and cross-fertilization of political subject-matter and the increasing complexity of questions that such massification imposes, little guidance is available to throw light on the fundamental emotional preparednesss of those elected and how such emotional predisposition can be the key to their future political engagement. The first part of the study recounts two findings in our research: on the one hand the recurrence of the choked emotions of deeply embedded memories (perhaps of family wounds, of affective fragility and an engrained sense of the injustices of this world); on the other hand the formulation of fundamental trauma, perhaps felt during the first experiences of electoral competition (and occuring under the three registers of euphoria, personal confidence and the strong feelings of attachment to a particular place). The second part analyses this data as related to areas of knowledge concerning political engagement and the exercise of power. The author defends, if only in an exploratory way, an approach which appeals to the notions of ego-politics and democratic sensitivity in order to understand the role of these primary emotions in the exercise of power in terms of mediation, eligibility and individualisation. The essay concludes with a reflection on the protocols of a type of research which integrates both autobiographical and literary introspective elements.

Keywords: émotions, pouvoir, médiation, éligibilité, démocratie, emotions, power, mediation, eligibility, democracy

Decentralized states like Spain operate under conflicting pressures in the conduct of their international relations: centralizing pressures, on the one hand, imposed by the necessity of speaking with a single voice in order to forge a coherent international policy and decentralizing pressures, on the other, because globalization stimulates a qualitative and quantitative extension of the internal and international roles of subnational players, mainly through the international deployment of subnational paradiplomacy. This centralization of external affairs and the centrifugal forces introduced by globalization cause problems in this type of System, in which subnational entities have numerous fields of jurisdiction. This new phenomenon is not without its risks because it leads to disorder and conflict. In many countries, the development of paradiplomacy by the substate actors creates conflict with the central government : The impression is created that the federal and the substate authorities are condemned to fight a zero-sum struggle for access to the international system, the former seeking to prevent the latter from playing a role in the development of foreign policy and to limit all international action by them. However, the picture is not all negative and this is what makes the subject so interesting. Despite this general trend toward conflict, there are exceptions in which both orders of government work together. This is the case nowadays in Spain and Catalonia.

This article examines the conditions of production for Canadian policy in development and. Traditionally, analysis of Canadian aid has followed either a pluralistic, statist or neo-marxist theoretical approach. Noting the inadequacy of these forms of explanation, the author proposes an interpretation of Canadian aid based on the concept of « international community. » This concept can be defined as being the totality of decision-making principles, norms, rules and procedures that structure the expectations and behaviours of those involved in areas dealing with international relations.By resorting to this notion of international community, this study intends to demonstrate that the conditions of production for Canadian aid encompass two kinds of determinism. First, on the systemic level Canadian policy can be perceived as the result of external pressures to put in place an international aid community that contributes to regulating North-South relations. Second, on the national level Canadian aid can be seen as the product of internal power relationships which translate into pressures on the State to modify its participation in the international aid community so as to ensure the promotion of specific political interests.