28

This article seeks to contribute to the social history of political science by conducting a critical study of the Revue française de science politique ( RSFP). Through this targeted analysis, the article will attempt to illustrate what can be gained by investigating the history of an academic journal with regard to understanding the genesis of a scientific discipline, as well as how the evolution of this discipline has in turn influenced the journal. In addition to the content published (a valuable subject from the perspective of intellectual history), we shall also look at the actors who shaped the journal – and thus, the budding discipline – and their editorial choices (what we shall call the journal’s “paratext”). Far from revealing the rapid construction of French political science, the first two decades of the RFSP (1951-1970) illustrate the pragmatism of its founders and their desire to endow the discipline with sound methodological tools and (especially bibliographic) references. This pragmatism would come to justify some of the journal’s later developments, including some of the hesitations and piecemeal choices that are often associated with the elaboration of scientific knowledge.