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Cet article se penche sur le lien entre passions et politique, si souvent négligé par la tradition libérale, et montre comment les passions égoïstes à l’origine de la modernité ne sont pas seulement celles de l’Homo œconomicus, mais aussi la passion d’acquérir et la passion de soi. Que ces passions soient fortes (comme chez Hobbes, qui permet de penser la modernité) ou faibles (comme chez Tocqueville, qui permet de penser la postmodernité), ce qu’elles alimentent, c’est un besoin d’ordre. Qu’il est possible de penser à partir de diverses constellations de passions : les passions communautaires ou d’appartenance, que l’on peut mettre en relation avec le paradigme de la reconnaissance, et les passions désintéressées ou passions de solidarité qui peuvent être associées au paradigme du don.

« At the origins of modern politics : interests or passions ? » The paper focuses on the nexus of passions and politics, which has been largely neglected by liberal tradition, and aims to show that at the origins of modern politics there is not only the rational interest of the homo oeconomicus, but a constellation of egoistic passions which can be summarised as the passion of acquiring and the passion of the self. Through the analysis of two models – the hobbesian, which is representative of modernity, and the tocquevillian, which is representative of post-modernity – I argue for the following thesis : from egoistic passions (both from their force, as in Hobbes, and from their weakness, as in Tocqueville) stems a need for order which remains even within the democratic configuration of politics. From the analysis of passions, emerges the order function of politics which characterises more or less manifestly the entire trajectory of modernity. On the basis of such a diagnosis, I propose to look at a different constellation of passions, which I define as sympathetic and which enable to disclose a different function of politics. Such passions revolve around two fundamental poles : communitarian passions or passions for belonging, which can be traced back to the paradigm of recognition, and the disinterested passions or passions for solidarity, which can be traced back to the paradigm of gift.