Contenu du sommaire : La formation professionnelle

Continuing Education Policy in the German Civil Service. In Germany, continuing education policy in the Civil Service is primarily determined by the State's federal structure. On that level, continuing education policy is set up mainly by the Federal Academy of Public Administration (Bundesakademie für öffentliche Verwaltung). This Academy works in close collaboration with the administration, the economic and scientific communities, and is responsible for improving the efficiency of the public service through training oriented towards practical application. On the regional level, continuing education systems may vary from one land to another. In addition, several examples show that individual initiatives are beginning to develop outside the traditional academies, and that they tend to redefine the training offer.

Senior Civil Servants during the Fifth Republic : Received Ideas vs. What Analysis Shows. Contrary to what sociological approaches tend to suggest, the analysis of professional careers shows that the relationships between administration and politics are defined in terms of underlying interactive structures. Analysis also shows the limitations of “models” of public administration during different historical periods : it is the availability of certain professional profiles that conditions political choice, politicisation leading to the definition of types of careers and various kinds of public action. The history of the “corps” and of senior civil servants is determined neither by mechanical rules nor by chance, but by specific normative structures. Due to the statistical nature of these structures, research on public administration follows two lines : a relative viewpoint and a long-term historical viewpoint.

The New Regime of the Senior Civil Service in Italy : a Constitutional Change. Two laws, drawn up respectively by the centre-left government (1998), then by the centre-right government (2002) ended the mandate of Senior Civil Servants in service and established that their new term would be shorter than that of the government. Whereas previously, the Senior Civil Service was less sensitive to the political context, it is now at its mercy, and therefore in a weaker position. A break occurred in the history of the Italian Constitution, until then characterised by its continuity : before this, as the well-known saying went, governments departed but the bureaucracy remained; now the roles have been reversed : governments have become stable and it is the bureaucrats who change.