The question about the archive is inseparable from the question about memory: one leads to the other, and reciprocally. This paper tries to distinguish both questions by reflecting on the links between each one of them and what is usually referred as politics. This entails reflecting, ultimately, on the notions of archive and memory as determinants of politics as such. In regard to the unique relation between these concepts, the policies undertaken on their behalf and the State, we will address emblematic texts of Jacques Derrida in order to draw some tentative conclusions from them.