Volume 16, Number 1, 1985

EN:

How are cultural changes put forward by so-called 'Utopias' accepted by political elites and then implemented through political decisions or international treaties ? This historical process has often been dealt with via two separate disciplines : sociology and political science. In this article, the author has chosen to use the new paradigm of global politics, i.e., the "issue paradigm", as his general framework of analysis.

This article comprises two parts. First a theory of political change - culturally induced. Four concepts of change and progress are examined (Saint-Pierre, Kant, Condorcet and Bentham). This leads the author to the formulation of a new concept: " counter-decision", which can be defined as "a minor concession pulled through socially organized utopian movements from still reluctant political elites, at the very time when History is shaken by some kind of crisis such as war". The total process consists of four successive stages which are: intellectual maturation, socialisation, counter-decision, and new policy which is the final stage of political change culturally induced.

The second part of the article gives a historical illustration of this four stages process, examples of which are the European unification, arbitration, collective security, disarmament, arms control, law of war and humanitarian law. These empirical illustrations reveal that Saint-Pierre, Kant, Condorcet and Bentham were all correct in their respective interpretation of progress. It also means that, in politics, cultural progress is at one and the same time rationally thought, reached through a dialectical process, cumulative or determinist in some aspects, if equally debated, and thus voluntarist.

EN:

This article is about the problem of the debt incurred by countries of Latin America, preference being given to the notion of net transfer of currency as being the main element which can explain relations between debtors and creditors. It shows that the recent evolution in the attitude of the debtor states, as has been apparent since the meeting at Quito, in January 1984, up to that at Mar del Plata in September 1984, is accounted for by the inversion of the flow of the net transfer of money. Latin America today has become a net exporter of currency.

Similarly, the future evolution between the pursuance of the monetary adjustment and the cessation of payment will be determined, in a large measure, by the scope and the meaning lying behind the net transfer of borrowed money. The economical, social and political consequences deriving from the actual reimbursement of the debt are such that they may promote the advent of regimes which will be compelled to implement deep structural reforms. Whether this comes about or not will depend a lot on the creditors.

EN:

To the French military, still recovering from their defeat in Indochina, the Algerian war was but the final outcome of the "subversive war" carried out by international communism against the colonial empires of the "imperialistic" powers since 1920. The historical analysis does not corroborate this far too unlateral interpretation of the complex and ambiguous relations which existed between the communist and the nationalist movements of Algeria: the algerian FLN in the beginning was no less anticommunist than antinationalist. However, the strategic and diplomatic needs of its struggle against France led it to lean progressively towards the "socialist" States instead of the "imperialistic" West, thereby foregoing its initial neutralism. This has profoundly affected the paths taken by independent Algeria.