Documents found
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241.More information
Through the analysis of how a metropolitan governance issue, under the dynamics of public stakeholders, is addressed from the bottom up by local representatives and then redefined from a top-down perspective by the central State, this paper examines the territorial construction of a public problem in the Greater Paris area. The case of the Greater Paris area reveals deep rifts between the city centre and the outskirts with the central State's difficulty to decentralize development authorities in the capital region, as well as the centrality of the institutional variable in the construction of the public problem.
Keywords: Problème public, Gouvernance métropolitaine, Grand Paris, Policy problems, Metropolitan governance, Greater Paris
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243.More information
The new model of public governance encompasses public administration (the impact of new public management) and the development of administrative organizations (i.e. the phenomenon of executive agencies), as well as governmental action in the evaluation of public policies and choices of ways and means. In light of these changes, one must refect upon the existence of public governance within a legal framework, about the specific traits of such a framework and its relationships with the classic « legal-rational » type model that has served as the foundation for the analysis of public administration. At first sight, the response may seem vague, because both components of public governance, public management and public policies, are generally not understood as an overall coherent body, and law generally remains excluded from the felds of analysis in academic writings. Despite difficulties linked to the vastness of the subject and the disparity of means found in public governance, several indications point towards the gradual emergence of a heterogeneous legal framework that breaks away from the public law paradigm. A new paradigm issuing from the main orientations of globalized governance (the market model, relational dimensions, horizontality and plurality of actors, effciency, evaluation, return and cost analysis of public services) now contributes to the redirecting of public action towards a diffuse conventionalism and the appearance of alternative mechanisms that blur the lines demarcating traditional legal categories. This evolution is characterized by hybridization and the appearance of forms which do not correspond to known categories. The emergence of these new forms demonstrates that the law is no longer the pivotal element of public action. Owing to the distribution of models and mechanisms throughout the western world and beyond, this situation contributes to a reorganization of public law within the context of a convergent approach to public governance. Promoted to the rank of a scientifc and managerial project, good governance distorts the classical face of good government. This change does not, however, make the classical model obsolete. Contemporary governance illustrates the subtle interweaving of these two paradigms where the traditional confguration of public law is complemented by new mechanisms deriving from the structural and axiological constraints of globalization and neo-liberal regulatory measures.
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246.More information
The theoretical framework of public problem remains quite discreet in geography, even though it is very classical in sociology and political science. Yet it seems useful to analyse conflictual situations regarding space, its sharing and its planning, as well as their (non-)resolution by public policies. The paper proposes to build on this framework to study a problem lasting for over a century: the deprivatization of the shores of Lake Geneva (Switzerland/France) and Lake Annecy (France). The paper reconstitutes the slow and difficult construction of the public problem and then analyses the strategies used to activate or circumvent the existing political rules. Drawing on this case study, we emphasize on the non-linearity of the construction and resolution of the problem and invite to shift the focus on the multiple retroactions between the early (framing, publicization) and late (agenda setting, public policies) stages of the classical model.
Keywords: problème public, stratégies d'activation des règles, privatisation littorale, accès public, lacs, public problem, law activation strategies, shoreline privatization, public access, lakes
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248.More information
Difficulties in defining think tanks complicate efforts to count them and construct meaningful samples, while attempts to define them more precisely often apply arbitrary distinctions. These difficulties are also tied to fundamental ambiguities concerning the nature of their political, scientific, and technocratic functions. This article compares four Canadian organizations (the Mowat Centre, the Parkland Institute, the Manning Centre, and the Broadbent Institute) to discover the dimensions that make up the think tank as a social type. The approach was to examine cases on the fringes of the figure of the think tank in order to assess the hypothesis according to which the tendency of an organization to juggle the logics of different fields (here academic and political) or to be absorbed in the logic of a single field modulates its willingness and capacity to adopt the identity of a think tank. Results suggest an association between a connection to the cultural category of the think tank and the ability of an organization to maintain, sometimes delicately, a dual commitment toward research and action without merging into either of these fields. They suggest that attention to the parameters of variation of these organizations may guide the formulation of more systematic sampling criteria. They also support the idea that the hybrid posture favoured by think tanks is of strategic significance for acting in different arenas of public policy.
Keywords: think tank, définition, classification, typologie, échantillonnage, rôle(s), think tank, definition, classification, typology, sampling, role(s)
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249.More information
Since 1992, the official government line in favour of more environmentally friendly agriculture has resulted in an increase in the number of public policy instruments and measures aimed at getting farmers to change their practices. The portfolio of optional agro-environmental measures has grown considerably. But in Réunion, the options made available by agricultural institutions for operationalizing these agro-environmental measures are limiting farmers' range of action and creating a paradox : in trying to meet profitability goals, public agricultural agencies continue to target large-scale professional farmers, further marginalizing small-scale informal operators who are not part of regular administrative networks, even though they are a potential source of even greater pollution than the large-scale operators, as well as constituting an essential part of the fabric of Réunion rural life.
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250.More information
The legalization of recreational use of cannabis introduced in Uruguay and Colorado is a major shift in the history of public policies aiming to control the use of this substance. A comparative approach of both processes shows however that the concept of “legalization” is not enough to encompass what is really going on. Distinct and diverging philosophies and national and political traditions have greatly influenced the way those processes have emerged and developed. The place and role of the state as well as the importance of market mechanisms in the regulation process illustrate some of these differences. As these two ongoing experiments highlight, the choice of legalization may also translate antagonist visions of the society or the world grounded in very specific national traditions.
Keywords: cannabis, légalisation, politiques publiques, marché, État, libéralisme, marijuana, legalization, public policies, market, State, free market, cannabis, legalización, políticas públicas, mercado, Estado, liberalismo