L'émergence d'une discipline scientifique. La création de l'Association Suisse de Science Politique (1951‐1959)

This article presents the results of a historical research on the creation of the Swiss Political Science Association in 1959. A first attempt of creation had failed eight years before, despite a favourable international context and the important scientific work of Marcel Bridel. Although Bridel was supported by several leading figures of the early political science, his proposal was met by the hostility of his colleagues, who had a historical, philosophical or juristic background. On the other hand, a few years later Jacques Freymond managed to create the Association in an almost administrative way and without any scientific discussion. The contrast between these two attempts illustrates the ambivalence of the institutionalisation process of Swiss political science since 1959. The institutional logic was more important during the creation of the Association than the scientific dimension, but has nonetheless been a useful basis to promote further scientific efforts. This initial ambivalence has had durable effects on the discipline, which obtained academic legitimacy without clearly taking position neither on its basic object, nor on its specificities with respect to the other social sciences or even ordinary discourses on politics. This has led to a disciplinary identity that is contingent, uncertain and fragile, and which calls for an epistemological reconsideration of the intellectual autonomy of political science.