Contenu du sommaire : Les méthodes modernes de gestion.

Experiments of modern management techniques in administration. Evaluation of cost and efficiency is a prerequisite for any streamlining effort. Two different attempts have been made in this respect over recent years : the introduction of managerial budgets in certain areas of the Defense ministry and the tentative implementation of program budgeting in various administrations. Another aspect of improving administrative performance consists in fixing relatively precise targets and pinpointing more clearly the choice of means to be used to reach them (e.g. the defense programming System or certain types of participatory direction by objectives) Equally, employer-employees agreements concluded within national companies underline the need for programming State action on the basis of a larger consultation of everybody concerned.

Control and management in public administration. The author first sets out to compare different Systems of control, e.g. of legal conformity, of quality of management, and internal and external control. Considerable differences result from variations in types of organisms and countries considered. The development of control has to cope with numerous obstacles inherent either in the typical features of public management or in relevant information Systems. Possible future development of control appears subject to a number of queries concerning the possibility of extending control to public policies, the growth limits of control, the measurement of its yield and its efficiency.

Management approaches in public welfare. Confronted with problems of increasing complexity, the Public Welfare Administration was reorganized in 1976. Its central services were relieved from ordinary managerial tasks to enable them to assume more efficiently their mission of hammering out general policies and checking their implementation. They confine themselves to coordinating action between establishments and providing the necessary technical assistance. In this sense, management appears to be the result of a well-regulated circulation of information between the central services, and a regular collaboration at the various levels. The eventual outcome of this process is an increased participation of everybody concerned.

Data processing and administration. What is the role of data processing in administration ? What effects has data processing on administration ? These are the two issues discussed by Mr. Huet. The author notes in the first place that the number of computers used in administration has trebled between 1970 and 1976. However, computers are not equally distributed among the various services, by far the best equipped being the postal and telegraphic administration. There are also regional disparities. Computers are mainly used for internal management, documentation, statistics, legal tracing, and tasks of public services. As regards the effects of data processing on administration, a much greater interest in data collection can be noted, as well as an increasing trend towards reshuffling and streamlining administrative structures. Finally, data processing cannot but affect the administrative decision-making process by requiring above all a more systematical approach to the issues at stake, with the concomitant drawback of slowing down the already heavy administrative process to the detriment of the public.

A three-year record of P.P.B.S. at the work department. The Work Department represents a particularly interesting field for the P.P.B.S. (Planning Programming Budgeting System). After the crisis suffered by the French economy, this department had to face new and important needs which required a general cohesion between various actions. The P.P.B.S. is both a set of ways for the distribution of seldom resources, and a way of interlocking administrative structures and processes in the Work Department whether between Departments or within the Department. The criteria accounting for the P.P.B.S. derive from a general pattern which takes into account the demographic, financial, economical and social aspects of the factors involved : There are two main steps in the P.P.B.S. approach : the involvements of the policy and the economic calculation itself.

Does program budgeting still have any prospects ? A preparatory tool for public decisions, program budgeting has to enable people in charge to define government priorities, to substantiate budget decisions, and to facilitate budget negotiations ; a tool for improving management and controlling public expenditure, program budgeting aims at integrating budget and accounting and reassigning control procedures. It also serves parliamentary information purposes with eventual effects on the voting of the Finance Bill.

Methods for defining a marketing public. The authors have attempted to identify the various directions in which a marketing public develops. For a number of years, marketing techniques have been used by public companies, administrations and local governments ; that is why an up-to-date definition of «marketing public» is becoming a delicate issue. In view of this, the authors suggest two approaches : one presenting marketing normatively as a tool for public bodies whose main objectives and operating conditions are fixed on a political plane ; the other presenting marketing developmentally as a method to revise targets and overhaul structures. The authors follow up on both approaches, emphasizing that effective marketing experience is going to increasingly influence decision makers and contribute to changing the expectations of the public and of public bodies.

Carter's intended reshuffling of federal bureaucracy. The author gives some prominence to the rather reserved public reception in the U.S. of President Carter's reform plans. The U.S. Administration is a tentacular monster that will enlace reformers. However, President Carter attempts to deal directly with this general skepticism, hoping to restore thereby the public's confidence in his administration. The issue takes therefore an ideological turn. Yet, do such plans have any chance ? In order to provide an answer to this query, the author analyses the various deadlocks responsible for red tapery. The main hitch appears to him the unflagging tension between President and Congress. One of the main remedies envisaged by the President to tackle this difficulty is the adoption of zero-based budgeting. At the same time, President Carter is reconsidering his relations with Congress so as to avoid a number of deadlocks. Yet, not all reserves of this assembly have been dispelled, a fact which leaves some doubt as to the effectiveness of Carter's reform.

Studying a methodology for tomorrow's management and administration. A study of methodology implies an interdisciplinary scientific approach to modern management and administrative techniques, an improvement of information, and stock-taking of aptitudes and attitudes of parties concerned. The author emphasizes the importance of structural environment, the field of action of politico-administrative Systems, and the need for streamlining policies with budgets and vice versa. Various structural and structure by target experiments have been tried out in the FRG.