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POLICY AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT Stéphane Dion Few studies have examined the relationship between political and administrative personnels in the French municipal government. This article deals with this topic on the base of a survey conducted during 1981 in five towns, of the Paris suburban area, ruled by the Left. The author explains how the connections between the administrative field and the political field do not provoke the same results depending on the subdivisions which exist within a municipal administration. He examines the strategies of «appel au politique» (calling on politics) that are used by the administrative personnel to obtain a privileged access to the most influent political representatives, strategies which take roots in the municipal administration's constraints.

RELATIONS BETWEEN FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATIONS AND THE PUBLIC : INTERNAL STAKES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL LIMITS Christine Musselin In order to understand the relationship between a public agency and its clients it is not enough to study the attitudes and opinions of the latter or to observe how the agency functions. For the former and the latter are linked and inter- dependant. This article emphazises these interdependancies and proposes a typology of relations drawn from a study of tax agency at the local level and organised around two main variables : the nature of the task and the organizational constraints on the employees of this agency. Even in an organization that imposes limits on its public these civil servants have room for manoeuver in their interactions with the clients of the agency. They value these interactions and find themselves valued in return and are reenforced in their own service. On the other hand they are more client-oriented and thus less under the organization's control.

BUDGETARY TRANSFERS AND DECENTRALIZATION : THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL GRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES Philippe Hussenot Most of the western democracies are using more and more unconditional general grants as a substitute for categorical grants. Does such a new form of intergovernmental grants provide broader independence to local governments ? The case of the United States is carefully studied in this first paper. Many researches in the last decade let us conclude that the local behaviour is changed by the fiscal situation, not by the kind of aid. Finally, it's the recent «fiscal distress» and the severe federal budgetary cuts which have produced a significant change in the local use of general revenue sharing and block grants.

SOCIAL BALANCE SHEET AND INTERNAL SOCIAL INDICATORS IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS Nicole Caillé-Talon If the economic and financial management of public organizations is subject to qualification in the realm of social management, it is not clear that these policies are well defined or that methods have been developed to evaluate their results. The examination of policies of several administrative structures allows one to distinguish four types of instruments of mesure : social balance sheets established by reference to legal criteria ; sectorial measures in social matters in different domains of personnel policy ; social indicators included in the regular decisional pattern ; and studies of specific problems. This article analyses the interest and the limits of these different categories of evaluation tools, with respect to the definition and the follow-up of internal social policies in public organizations. In second part of the paper, the author presents a reflection on the procedures and the tools likely to promote greater taking into consideration of human management. She shows, with an example, the interest of the social audit in defining general objectives in social policy and the sectional policies which follow from it. Further, she examines the contribution possible from the creation of social observation posts and the possible means of constructing indicators which, incorporated into normal decisional paths at the different levels of responsibility, would allow social policy to be made. Finally, she shows the role which could take a social balance sheet which would become a veritable aid to decision makers at the central level for evaluating the results of social policies, from discussions and negotiations to social planning.