Elites and intellectual reform of the state. Sketch three times a displacement of expertise

The article highlights the milestones of the transformations of state and public sector reform expertise in France between 1980 and 2008. Until the eighties, French state reform experts belonged to the technocratic national elites and were trained as top civil servants, who found new ideas and metho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cahiers internationaux de sociologie 2009-01, Vol.126, p.39-59
Main Authors: Berrebi-Hoffmann, Isabelle, Gremion, Pierre
Format: Article
Language:fre
Subjects:
Consultants
Experts
France
Modernity
Public Sector
Reform
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The article highlights the milestones of the transformations of state and public sector reform expertise in France between 1980 and 2008. Until the eighties, French state reform experts belonged to the technocratic national elites and were trained as top civil servants, who found new ideas and methods of public modernization in their networks and clubs. From the nineties onwards, experts were provided more and more by international strategy and management consulting companies and global think tanks. Meanwhile, the conceptions of public sector reforms have converged to be eventually understood only as a managerial reform, using "New Public Management" approach. This induced the importation of private sector management devices and organizational forms in the French public sector. Our analysis concludes by questioning the stability of the traditional resources of French national public elites and their necessary evolution in a world where States reforms constitute a worldwide consulting market. Adapted from the source document.
ISSN:0008-0276