| Titre | Le pour et le contre | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Bernard Cazes | |
 |
Revue | Revue Française de Sociologie |
| Numéro | Numéro spécial 1971 Analyse de systèmes en sciences sociales (II) | |
| Page | 155-167 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Bernard Cazes : Felicific calculus in Government activities.
During the 50's and 60's social expenditures have increased at such a rate that it cannot be maintained for a very long time; moreover this rapid expansion has not been followed by a parallel rise in satisfaction. These two factors explain the interest taken in many countries in methods for improving the rationality of public choices. The use of these methods has three main consequences. Firstly, they typically lead to formulate official goals at the national level, or at least to a regular measurement of the state of the society through social indicators. That creates two problems : 1. the identification of causal relationships between social output indicators and the activities which influence the numerical values they take; 2. the regrouping of social measurements in a limited number of areas. Secondly, these methods imply a «holistic» approach, i.e. a refusal to cope with the issues on a piece-meal basis in order to minimize the risks of sub-optimization. The holistic approach cannot be applied between different goals of a final character ? except through rather unsatisfying conventions ? because of difficulties inherent in weighting individual outputs. Generally its use implies comparisons between costs an benefits of policies related to similar purposes. Here a distinction can be made between comparisons within the status quo which allow to clarify, area by area, the links connecting public activities and their measurable social output, and comparisons between the prevailing situation and feasible alternatives, where systems analysis comes in. Finally policy analysis is less exclusively concerned with the « advocacy process because it considers that one must assess the effectiveness of a solution before trying to know about its acceptability. Beyond the spurious criticisms darted at those who try to bring some analytical rigour in public affairs one should be aware that the political arena is an unpromising field in that respect for a number of reasons related to the manner in which decisions are prepared, implemented, or evaluated ex post. One of the possible by-products of the drive for more effectiveness could be a slowing down of decision-making process such as to make modern life less hectic. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
|
| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rfsoc_0035-2969_1971_hos_12_1_1937 |
