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‪This article looks at the resurgence in French sociology of the dispute surrounding the problem of republican universalism, based on an analysis of texts published on the subject since 2010. From a Durkheimian perspective, it argues that this revival and the exacerbation of related tensions stem from the acceleration of the division of social labour and the consequent deepening of individualism in the collective consciousness. At the very level of sociological categories, this process feeds a confrontation between what we have identified, following a close examination of the corpus, as three distinct and antagonistic patterns ( liberal, conservative, socialist) of the Republic. By demonstrating how these three patterns mark out the dispute between sociologists, the article aims to better understand the social problem that crystallises their views, to restore in each of them the work of justice that animates political society in its entirety and in its parts.‪