Abstract
This article offers a set of hypotheses, notions and perspectives for a synthetic analysis of French laïcité, from a socio-historical viewpoint. The author puts forward different notions such as “clericalism” and “anticlericalism”, “first and second thresholds of laïcization” and pacte laïque (eventual resolution of conflict). After outlining the main historical stages of French laïcité—creation of the “laïque morale” in the 1880s, separation between State and churches (1905), and inscription of laïcitéwithin the Constitution (1946), Baubérot considers laïcitéin an ideal-typical view, as a constant tension between “freedom of conscience” (freedom giving rise to pluralism) and “freedom of thought” (freedom as emancipation from authoritarian systems of thought). After this, the author considers present-day relations between laïcitéand the old and more recent religions that can be found in France, and also contemporary transformations of what is religious.