What can sociology contribute to political theory? Bernard Manin, reader of Montesquieu

For political theory, the criticisms levelled at it by sociology remain, for the most part, external considerations, with sociologists, for defensible reasons, generally refraining from entering into philosophical debate. The approach proposed here is different: it considers the possibility that sociological reasoning could internally affect political theory. However, they are likely to affect each other in a useful way. Through the dual claim made on him by the philosophical and sociological traditions of these two disciplines, one author invites us to take this approach: Montesquieu. But we must still be able to recognize it, which is why Bernard Manin's reading of The Spirit of Laws proves essential. This reading admirably highlights how Montesquieu was the first to put forward a way of thinking about society that, although eminently modern, broke with the “individualistic and unitary liberalism” of the Moderns. Ultimately, Manin's analyses allow us to turn the initial question on its head: what if the struggles still being fought today by the descendants of the philosophical tradition initiated by Montesquieu – including Manin himself – were in turn capable of affecting sociology internally, helping it to rid itself, in a single movement, both its false positivist consciousness and its accommodation of arbitrary criticism?