Central State Policy Implementation in France
(2024) Handbook of Public Policy Implementation — ISBN: [9781800885899], p. 312-322, published
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- Abstract
- France has long been considered a paragon of centralization and still is, despite reforms toward increased regionalization and transfers of policy responsibilities to subnational governments since the 1980s, as well as European integration. In this chapter, we study the implementation of central state policy over the course of territorial restructuring. We review policy instruments and supervisory mechanisms in place allowing prefects and other central states officials to monitor the implementation of central state policies across the national territory before and after decentralization. We discuss the role of subnational governments and private actors as implementation players since the early days of centralization. Based on a systematic literature review and a broader range of research, this chapter offers a multilevel, diachronic and cross-policy sectors analysis. It discusses two partially conflicting analyses of the contemporary French state's role in implementation. The first emphasizes its ‘steering at a distance’ capacity, while the second suggests that the French state’s power to implement its decisions over the national territory hinges on how state actors actually make use of their resources in the course of implementation, which is not systematically the case.
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Pollard, J., & Dupuy, C. (2024). Central State Policy Implementation in France. In Sager, Fritz; Mavrot, Céline; Keiser, Lael (ed.), Handbook of Public Policy Implementation (p. p. 312-322). Edward Elgar. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/243521