Elites, Policies and State Reconfiguration. Transforming the French Welfare Regime -Presentation of the upcoming book by William Genieys & Saïd Darviche (Palgrave, 2024)

POLICY STATE CONVERSATION 
(SEMINAR OF THE KEY THEME THE STATE AS PRODUCER OF PUBLIC POLICIES)

Sciences Po, 1 place Saint-Thomas 75007 Paris

The study of the transformation of the French welfare regime between 1970 and 2020 reveals the recomposition of the power of unelected governmental elites at the apex of the state. By revisiting the concepts of “ruling class” (Mosca), “elite circulation” (Pareto) and “strategic elites” (Keller), and by using the Programmatic Elites Framework, the authors established a link between the institutionalization of a group of social insurance policies elites characterized by a new sociological profile (social background and career path) and the shaping of policies within an Iron Triangle of the social security governance. These elites —exclusively composed of high civil servants— have carried out a programmatic orientation towards universalizing social security and opening it up to cover other risks. In the context of its implementation, they have developed the role of custodians of state policies which is characterized by promoting the extension of state interventionism (ethics of ultimate ends); a promotion which, from their point of view, must be “responsible” (ethics of responsibility) i.e. translate into “sustainable” policies considering political, budgetary, etc., constraints. This broadening of the state’s scope of intervention and the increase in its strength by these influential governmental insiders sheds new light on the issue of the reconfiguration of public authority in France. Far from being dismantled by neoliberalism, the strong French state seems instead to be rising from the ashes in a policy domain representing a larger budget than the whole of the rest of the state’s budget.

Speaker

William Genieys, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

Chair

Ulrike Lepont, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

Information: ulrike.lepont@sciencespo.fr