International audience In his book The essence of the Political (1965), Julien Freund proposed a definition of the political, distinct from politics, articulated around three main relations : between command and obedience, between the private and the public, between the friend and the enemy. The first part of the article gives a brief presentation of Freund’s thesis. The second part discusses two particular points, from the point of view of Jean Gagnepain’s theory of mediation : government (or hegetic) and violence.