Fiction or Reality? Public Opinion in Eighteenth-Century France
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Abstract
In the pre-revolutionary political culture that characterized France in the 18th century, public opinion oscillates between a discursive fiction and a social reality, between a word and a thing. From a descriptive point of view, public opinion is indeed a plural, heterogeneous reality that refers to the popular rumors as well as to the public use of criticism. On the other hand, from a normative point of view, public opinion is an ideological concept whose alleged spokespersons, mainly lawyers, magistrates and writers, try to transform into a singular, unique authority of legitimization, parallel to the king's one. By resorting to the benefits of socio-cultural history as well as conceptual history, we will try to show that this twofold status, descriptive and normative, is inherent in the concept of public opinion itself.
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