Pour une sociologie cognitive de la compétence politique

Abstract

For a Cognitive Sociology of Political Competence Alfredo Joignant The concept of "political competence" has for a long time remained forgotten by political scientists. Wrongfully so. As a matter of fact, this notion has been rediscovered by the sociology of labor, in France. In the United States, it has been revisited by the cognitive schools of social psychology (schema theory, social cognition) in order to make sense of the complex relationships that ordinary citizens establish with politics in this field and with its agents. This article deals with the advantages and limits of the concept of political competence, the uses and commitments it authorizes in sociology, social psychology and political science, as well as the controversy it has recently stired.