15

For 36 days, a legitimate uncertainty hovered over the ballot count for the 2000 US presidential election. It was an opportunity to study, in almost laboratory conditions, the social mechanisms involved in forming a numerical abstraction. A temporary symbolic revolution was reconstituted, characterized by the social suspension of calculations, owing to the uncertain situation. During this time, the principal stake in the political struggle was the construction of the social time befitting the resolution of this uncertainty in a socially acceptable form. In the end, the only point of agreement was the judicial technology which would eventually lead to resolution of the conflict. The present study also casts doubt on the spontaneous political philosophy at play in a good many pieces of social science.