{"id":1909,"date":"2017-01-25T18:32:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T16:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2017-03-22T16:50:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T14:50:44","slug":"the-politics-of-administrative-reorganization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/research\/cogito\/home\/the-politics-of-administrative-reorganization\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The politics of administrative reorganization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating new agencies, merging services, establishing one-stop shops: why are governing bodies in France and abroad constantly changing the scope and jurisdictions of bureaucracies, thereby disrupting the state\u2019s division of labour? This is the question tackled in a special issue of the Revue Fran\u00e7aise de Science Politique<\/i> (French journal of political science) on \u201cThe Politics of organization. The new divisions of labour of the state<\/a>\u201d*, edited by Philippe Bezes and Patrick Le Lidec, both researchers at Sciences Po\u2019s Centre d\u2019\u00e9tudes europ\u00e9ennes (centre for European studies).<\/p>\n

\"RencontreReorganizations as a government tool<\/b><\/p>\n

The introduction stresses the importance of the \u201cpolitics of organization\u201d at the heart of contemporary transformations in the form of states. Since the 1980s, governments have introduced a number of initiatives aiming to \u201cmanipulate the machine\u201d and thus to build and rebuild the structures of public administration as if it were an endless bureaucratic Lego\u00a9 game. These interventions come in two generally opposed organizational forms: the creation of \u201cagencies\u201d promoting specialization on the one hand; and on the other, mergers reflecting efforts to stem excessive organizational fragmentation and to support integrated organizations. Shaping the administrative division of labour has become a common tool of government \u2013 a full-fledged instrument in the exercise of power.<\/p>\n

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The various forms of politics in reorganizations <\/b><\/p>\n

The main point is to show that a state\u2019s embrace of this \u201corganizational approach\u201d does not mean that politics are set aside or that phenomena of domination disappear. On the contrary, it enables the exploration of the importance and range of political strategies and games at the heart of the reforms.<\/p>\n

Following an overview of the numerous international studies on agencies and mergers, and a critical analysis of the theories on which they are based, the introduction highlights four intertwined dimensions of politics in reorganizations:<\/p>\n