Quand la publicité des débats sert à renforcer le secret des intérêts particuliers: l'exemple américain des droits civiques

Abstract

The ethics of publicity in social sciences may highlight the dark part of parliamentary debates. They do not only aim to explain the stakes of the future law, but can also help, because they make use of the publicity around what is said, to heighten the “unspoken”. Indeed, the analysis of the congregational debates held to adopt the Civil Rights Act of 1964 brings to light the strategy of the southern Senators opposed to a draft law yet introduced by members of their own political party, the Democratic Party. They rely on a range of political, legal or media-centered arguments to show that de jure equality, although enshrined in the amended American Constitution, must not necessarily become de facto equality. In other words, this paper, combining communicative and civilizational perspectives, is trying to highlight how publicity around the debates can also be used to reinforce the secret surrounding individual interests.