Notions

• Universalism

   existence of a unity of mankind beyond the cultural diversity of mankind. On a normative level, it designates a political philosophy whose purpose is to grant all citizens of the same nation common rules, values, principles, without distinctions relating to cultural, religious or philosophical particularities.

  Republican universalism: a legacy of the Enlightenment philosopher, one of the major challenges in the fight against the Ancien Régime characterized by privileges, particularisms and inequalities, to lay the foundations for a rule of law for all citizens.

  The universalist principles enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) founded the first French Republic "one and indivisible" to unify the nation and the French territory, and in particular by condemning corporate, legislative and religious particularities, regional or linguistic.

  Pursued by Napoleon, universalism inspired the Civil Code (promulgated in 1804) which governs the lives of the French, and applies to each of them, suppressing specific laws.

  The principle of universalism also allowed the adoption of the major laws of public freedoms of the Third Republic as well as the establishment of public primary education, free and compulsory (Jules Ferry law of 1881), a law supplemented by secular education. in public establishments (law of March 28, 1882).

  Universalism is inseparable from the principle of neutrality enunciated by the Law of Separation of Church and State (1905).

  The discourse on national unity was supplemented in the second half of the 20th century by that on equal rights and duties of citizens. The national resistance program (in 1945) revives universalism by restoring democracy, universal suffrage and by creating Social Security in reaction to the Vichy regime (Canopée, 2020)

  Canopée, 2020