This paper attempts to reconstruct the links between political modernity and the concept of global society by reference at once to the development of modern societies and Québécois society. The current crisis of global societies is associated with the difficulty of constructing a shared world, an interface between society as social reality and society as political construct. Global society nevertheless remains a requirement of democracy. Far from being a particular case, the search by Québécois nationalists for a new global society is viewed as typifying the stakes and issues characterizing advanced modernity.