Stuart Jones is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Manchester. He has written widely on British and French intellectual history and political thought, chiefly of the nineteenth century. His books include The French State in Question (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Victorian Political Thought (2000), and Intellect and Character in Victorian England: Mark Pattison and the Invention of the Don (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He also edited Comte: Early Political Writings for the Cambridge Texts in Political Thought series (Cambridge University Press, 1998). He is currently Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (2008–9).

"Richly documented, with an extensive, select bibliography and excellent index, this is a highly readable study of the social perspectives that made the conflicy between the right to associate and the rights of the state so central to the definition of French political realities and so difficult to resolve." Tobin H. Jones, French Review

• Introduction; 1. Political culture and the problem of the state; 2. Law and the state tradition; 3. Administrative syndicalism and the organization of the state; 4. Public power to public service; 5. Civil rights and the republican state; 6. From Contract to Status: Durkheim, Duguit and the state; 7. Maurice Hauriou and the theory of the institution; Conclusion.

Stuart Jones is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Manchester. He has written widely on British and French intellectual history and political thought, chiefly of the nineteenth century. His books include The French State in Question (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Victorian Political Thought (2000), and Intellect and Character in Victorian England: Mark Pattison and the Invention of the Don (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He also edited Comte: Early Political Writings for the Cambridge Texts in Political Thought series (Cambridge University Press, 1998). He is currently Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (2008–9).

"Richly documented, with an extensive, select bibliography and excellent index, this is a highly readable study of the social perspectives that made the conflicy between the right to associate and the rights of the state so central to the definition of French political realities and so difficult to resolve." Tobin H. Jones, French Review

• Introduction; 1. Political culture and the problem of the state; 2. Law and the state tradition; 3. Administrative syndicalism and the organization of the state; 4. Public power to public service; 5. Civil rights and the republican state; 6. From Contract to Status: Durkheim, Duguit and the state; 7. Maurice Hauriou and the theory of the institution; Conclusion.