What is laïcité? The question has given rise to much discussion and a lot of controversy, especially in France. This is partly because the country sees a persistent phenomenon of people laying exclusive claim to the French term ‘laïcité', which is not always easy to translate, it is true, but it is also due to the actual concrete conditions of its implementation.
We will attempt her to shed light on the specific ways in which France and french laïcité has responded to requirements and values closely linked to the democratic project. We will then go on to examine, in the light of these specific aspects, the capacity of the system, which dates back more than a century , to meet the new challenges confronting it.