Contenu du sommaire : Le Service public en crise - (2) Réponses - Comparaisons internationales

The regulation of public utilities. Economic analysis, legal framework and institutional issues. Activities that are considered as public utilities can be implemented in a variety of ways, from publicly-owned monopoly to regulated private firms. The article focuses on the latter. A comparative and historical view of the organization and the regulation issues of public utilities in France and the United States is offered. It highlights the relevance of taking into significant account the legal and institutional frameworks of regulatory policies.

Public management and commercial management of railway transport The purpose of this article is to reply to several questions concerning the public management of the railway system by confronting the French model and the emergent European model. Characteristic of an industrial development model dominant in the 1960's, the "French style public service" can't pretend to serve as a basis for an European model. At the same time, the model of universal service is neither the answer to the crisis in the public enterprises nor to that in the services of general interest. The elaboration of an alternative model must be built on a redefinition of the relationship public/private. This reflection must be based on the connection between market and non-market systems of management and control.

The development of marketing and the reconstruction of the public service The crisis of public service is linked with the hegemony of the market model. Competition (especially indirect) is becoming more intensive and the weight of budgetary constraint is bringing discredit on non-market culture. At the same time users are asking for more adaptability. The marketing response makes the evolution of both products and relations with users possible. But it induces a differentiation which hits at some of the foundations of public service. The segmentation of products coincides with the development of the notion of universal service which reduces the scope of the notion of public service. Marketing is a source of adaptability but accelerates the reconstruction of public service.

Empirical analysis of the regulation of local telephone service. A technico-economic methodology. This paper proposes an empirical methodology for studying the regulation of local telephone markets, that combines an engineering process model of costs with mo¬ dels from the new regulatory economics. This technico-economic methodology is illustrated through the undertaking of two analyses. First, we study in some details the properties of the optimal regulatory mechanism. The main findings are that, for fixed territory, strong economies of scale allow local exchange telecommunications to retain monopoly characteristics even when the (informational) costs of regulation are properly accounted. Second, we evaluate from an efficiency and welfare point of view, the relative performance of various other regulatory mechanisms, from both traditional and modern (incentive) regulation.

The reform of the public services in the United Kingdom. Privatization, regulation and liberalization. This paper explores the interrelationship of privatization, liberalisation, regulation and competition in the UK public sector. While the rhetoric of privatization implied that state regulation should be replaced by competition, new entry has been limited in these activities. UK privatisation has led to the development of a major new apparatus of regulation for the new private monopolies, which is likely to be a durable rather than a transitional phenomenon. Far from depolitcising these industries, this has led to much attention being paid to the accountability of regulators, the profits of the firms, and the salaries of their managers.

"Reinventing government". An American movement of governmental reform "Reinventing government" is the name given to a government reform movement emerging in the 1980s which is, now, active at all levels of American public sector. Face with fiscal stress and popular distrust of bureaucratic administration, it focuses on efficiency, customer satisfaction, decentralizing authority, privatization and entrepreneurial spirit. The paper provides an overview of the origins, goals, difficulties and limits of what is the most important reform movement since the "progressive movement" established the basics of modern American public administration at the beginning of the century.

The evaluation of public services. From a logic of management to a logic of democracy. Faced with the uncertainty of the effects of public action and the dissatisfaction of the users, public deciders ask the users more often for their opinion and let them participate in the decision process. The aim of this text is to show that, in such a context, the participation of the users in the decision-making process requires ex-ante evaluation methods incorporating real negotiation tools and conflict solutions. Because of the weakening of the traditional modes of citizen representation (political and trade union organizations), it seems that a participation style evaluation can constitute a field of expression and challenge against authority, essential to democratic debate.

Public service television and the commoditization of communication. The goal of this text is to initiate a reflection on the evolution of public service broadcasting in the historical context of an increased commoditization of culture and communication. For this purpose, we will first consider the Anglo-Saxon and French conceptions of the notion of public service and then the development and the crisis of public service in the broadcasting field, in the specific cases of Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Then, we will synthesise what appears to us the most relevant analyses expounding on that evolution, before concluding with an interrogation on the links between public service and public sector.

Work organisation, methods of intervention and the local area. The case of the officials in the Public Employment Agencies. The construction of local units is a means for the centralized level to maintain the social representations which accord with the labour market. This theoretical presupposition is a way of giving the Public Employment Service (Service public de l'emploi : SPE in french) officials responsibilities which accord with the local situation in their intervention zone. Actually, by specific practices, these officials are supposed to solve the employment issues. But, on the other hand, when we analyse the construction of the relations which are established between these officials and the work organization, the division of labour and the transformations of these organizations, it appears that for the above mentioned officials it is impossible to initiate at the local level. The study of the relations at the local level between the SPE officials and the users of this service may pinpoint a number of paradoxes between the national (state) intentions and the local realities. These paradoxes may explain in part the present crisis of the SPE.

Economy and techno-science. (1) A economico-anthropological view. The market system and techno-science are part of the same dynamic, underpinned by an unlimited desire to rationally control the world. But neither man nor nature are commodities in the ordinary sense of the word. The sense of incompletion highlighted as much by Polanyi as by Heidegger, necessitates ever increasing means to correct and oust the effects of rationalization. Amongst these means, supposed progress plays a primordial role.