ABSTRACT
The aim of the paper is to analyze a specific normalizing policy, which, at the end of the nineteenth century, in the early French Third Republic, led to the banning of French Sign Language (FSL), and to the mandatory use of oral methods in schools for deaf-mute children. The paper will be organized in three parts. First, the main steps of pro-voice policy will be described. Second, an analysis of the specific social and political configuration that made such a policy possible and available in the 1880s in France will be proposed. Finally, a specific part will examine the decisive factor of the policy process, namely the past development of the State in terms of bureaucratization. 1
