The environment in which Claparède was born and raised influenced much of his theories and approach to applied psychology. His psychology aims to understand the laws of mental development and to ensure that people know and appreciate their own country but also understand and interact with people from other cultures and with different values; far from nationalism, his ideal was civic-mindedness, internationalism and pacifism for a harmonious coexistence between peoples. Geneva, the seat of the League of Nations, was the place where a lasting peace based on the defense of human rights could be built. His pedagogy, based on research, is a revolutionary pedagogy based on the discat a puro magister where the center of attention and care is the pupil with his rights, interests, needs, requirements and perspectives. There is another important value in Claparède: liberalism, which he considered the most suitable context for a truly human development; it was also a working method to understand the many social and political distortions. All these elements come together in the foundation and management of the Institute J.-J. Rousseau. A private foundation, even if connected to the university, with courses open to teachers, attended by many foreign students, with its summer courses in the mountains, it was a place of research, yes, but also a space where social relations and respect for people were very important according to the legacy inherited from Théodore Flournoy. The communication will question the role of these values and of this Claparèdian political culture in the creation of the Geneva school.