ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the central role of Emile Durkheim's political thought in his sociology as a whole. Consequently any attempt at a critical assessment of his political ideas must be placed within a broader evaluation of his writings in sociology and social philosophy. An adequate critical evaluation of Durkheim's political sociology, therefore, must go beyond the specious sort of criticism. Durkheim's theory of politics and the state is undoubtedly the most neglected of his contributions to social theory. Examination of Durkheim's writings on the growth of moral individualism, on socialism, and on the state, in the context of the social and political issues which he saw as confronting the Third Republic, shows how mistaken it is to regard him as being primarily 'conservative' in his intellectual standpoint. It is undoubtedly the case that Durkheim's thought did undergo significant modification and elaboration over the course of his intellectual career.
