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ABSTRACTTo better grasp the problem of the historical diversity and the rootedness of family policies in their cultural context, this article compares the situation of Germany before and after the 1989 reunification. This particular example is presented as a sort of socio-historical laboratory for measuring how political issues have influenced the development of means of socio-political regulation of the family and to refute non-historical comparisons of "welfare cultures" based on pseudoscientific cross-cultural stereotypes. This specific national case can simultaneously help to foster critical reflection on the new Europe and related social and political issues.

In 1994 The National Library of Canada set up the National Core Library Statistics Programme (NCLSP). The aim of this programme is to draw up a national profile of libraries. To be successful, this programme has to rely on a close partnership with organisations and associations. A steering committee, made up of representatives from associations and networks of libraries, determines the scope of the programme, supervises the gathering of statistics, sees the interpretation of the results and publishes reports on the trends affecting the development of libraries. The ASTED representative outlines a brief history of the NCLSP and the role of the steering committee. The 1994 results and the specific situation of libraries in Québec are also presented. He concludes with a short summary of the perspectives of the Programme.

Although innovation is now considered to be the main driver for improving local public performance, there is little research on its dynamics and determinants. The objective of this of this research, which considers innovation as a multidimensional phenomenon, is to analyze the impact of organizational, environmental and managerial determinants on the various forms of local public innovation, based on a quantitative research conducted among French local authorities. By highlighting common determinants but also determinants specific to specific forms of innovation, this research sheds a new light on the dynamics of change and innovation within local public organizations.

Keywords: innovation publique, organisation publique, collectivités locales, dynamique de changement, Public innovation, public organizations, local authorities, change dynamics, innovación pública, determinantes, comunidades locales, análisis cuantitativo

The rationality of the state at work in the governance of public forests greatly limits the ability of indigenous communities to put new forest models into practice. The findings of the Mi'gmaq of Gespeg's commitment to forestry, as well as the difficulties encountered in implementing their community forest are the starting point for shedding light on the rationality that governs the use of Quebec's public land. This governmental rationality greatly limits the actions that can be taken to meet the needs and aspirations of specific groups. Thus, the system of governmentality, in Foucault's terms, of Quebec public lands is based on a one-dimensional conception of the Quebec population and a homogeneous vision of the territory and the economy. This perspective guides government actions towards the exploitation of resources and the territory based on the well-being of the Quebec population in general. The Aboriginals are therefore on the margins of the exercise of state power over its territory. Indigenous forestry carried out at the local level therefore confronts the mission of the responsible ministries. In addition, the indigenous desire to adapt the public forest management framework to its vision constitutes a challenge for scientific forestry, the basis of state forest management. These indigenous claims are currently exerting strong pressure for a transformation of the governmentality of public lands. Thus, the system of governmentality of public lands is called upon to redefine itself, both in its conception of the Quebec population, of the rights of certain groups, of its vision of the role of public lands, and in its system of knowledge.

Keywords: foresterie autochtone, gouvernementalité, territoire public, Foucault, ressources naturelles, colonialisme, aboriginal forestry, governmentality, public land, Foucault, natural resources, colonialism

This papers offers an analysis of the anti-feminism expressed by central actors of the field of population policies, which became a “pro-feminist” field refocused on “health and the reproductive rights” in the 1990s. This “revolution”, accomplished during the Cairo conference on population in 1994, saw the victory of a group of feminist agents within major philanthropic foundations and other organizations and the relative banishment of former experts in “population”. This appropriation of power loosened the expression of an anti-feminism, often veiled with politically correct discourse, which structures the representations of the social space of reproductive health institutions and operates a dichotomy between correct scientific expertise and ideological and illegitimate activism.

Keywords: antiféminisme, politiques de population, droits reproductifs, santé

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

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.