The reputation of Maurice Duverger, who, rising from an academic position in law, was one of the founding fathers of the revival of French political science in the 1950s, like his sudden disappearance at the end of the 1980s from main reference works in political science and civil law, can only be understood if we take into account the fact that scientific fame results from factors that are sometimes very far from the logic of the scientific field itself and depends instead on various social sectors. It also hinges on internal academic struggles over scientific jurisdiction in various academic fields and ways of establishing a scientific discourse. From this point, the shift from fame to oblivion that characterizes Maurice Duverger?s career a heuristic indicator of the transformations of social and scientific conditions peculiar to France and of the legitimization of the scientist in the world of political science and civil law during the second half of the twentieth century.