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Whereas many studies address the capacity of so-called patient organisations to influence health policy, the invention of the “rare diseases” category requires to describe simultaneously the making of a cause and of a policy. An American public policy measure creates a “public” that encompasses, among others, persons affected with an uncommon disorder who take collective action. As an answer to this action, the American administration invents the category of “rare diseases”, both as a public action instrument and as a new identity for this public. The French administration lastly sees in this instrument the problem to be solved, and fosters a patients' mobilization in Europe.

By studying the case of obesity prevention, this paper contributes to enlightening the reorganizations of public health policies in France. The analysis of mechanisms presiding over the assertion of a private operator as a justifiable and leading actor (developing henceforth in more than 200 cities) is a privileged point of observation of the articulation between policies carried out by the State and the municipalities on one hand, and an original mode of policy privatization on the other hand. This operator does not fit into the usual categories for analysis of policy, but corresponds more to the figure of the private entrepreneur succeeding in creating a durable role for himself on the border of two heterogeneous worlds, which often find themselves in conflict, that of public health and market.

Contemporary global environmental politics are increasingly characterised by the emergence of private actors, in particular private companies, in the process of shaping and managing international regimes. The role of corporate lobbying is largely neglected in International Relations' theory, except for the neo-gramscian analysis of transnational capitalist elites' influence on international regimes. Based on available literature as well as some empirical observations, our analysis revisits the cases of the Kyoto Protocol (climate change) and the Cartagena Protocol (biosafety) to question the neo-gramscian vision of business lobbying in environmental multilateral agreements. On the one hand, private companies are poorly organized at the transnational level, and are divided along several fault lines. On the other hand, their influence on negotiations' results is unequal and never warranted.

Does presidential popularity depend more on economic context than media's coverage of economy ? Starting from a survey of previous studies, we propose a model of economy's influence on popularity based on economic concerns and perceptions, media's coverage and real economic changes. We use it to estimate the popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy, and we show that economic information indirectly impacts popularity through subjective economic variables. Moreover, both partisan affiliation and 2008 economic crisis modify the factors of support. In conclusion, economic perceptions and concerns are more influenced by media's coverage than by economic changes. And presidential popularity fluctuations depend on this “impersonal influence”.