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Universities use management tools to meet transparency-related expectations. The studies that have examined transparency in universities adopt the perspective of accountability according to New Public Management. In the management literature, in contrast, transparency has often been studied within a broader approach, in different ways based on its contextualization. A review of the literature and analysis of 36 strategic plans prevailing at French and Quebec universities has brought to light a new type of transparency: enabling transparency. © 2021 IDMP/Lavoisier SAS – Tous droits réservés

After the mid-twentieth century, local authorities and especially, regional councils were marginalized from the regulation of the French electricity sector. Indeed, they have historically limited resources to intervene in this field. However, regulatory and institutional evolutions as well as energy transition issues reaching the top of public agendas provide opportunities for them to gain more political leverage in this area. Despite disparities between them, the three regions studied – namely, Rhône-Alpes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur – resort to the same tools to set up their policies: they use symbols, communication and marketing techniques to convey their claims and assert their legitimacy to play a greater role in this sector. The latter is characterized by a strong path dependency, which regional councils try to counterbalance by promoting very ambitious energy transition objectives. They give them a strong publicity and spread actively knowledge about their initiatives, so as to make them more visible and to get symbolic achievements. Even though these policies are not followed by strong quantitative results, still they are important: they have effects on key aspects of the electricity system. These are still very limited, but could sow the seeds of greater changes. © 2021 IDMP/Lavoisier SAS – Tous droits réservés

In a context of national (and even international) democratic crisis against a backdrop of austerity, the reflection developed in this article questions research in public management, which must face the societal challenges of dialogue with citizens and come to terms with the new public management. The objective is then to understand how the participatory budget can be considered as a device at the service of public value management. In order to shed empirical light on the subject, the design of this qualitative research is exploratory, based on a single case study and semi-directive interviews, which make it possible to gather the impressions of managers and an elected official in a French municipality that has set up a participatory budgeting system. © 2021 IDMP/Lavoisier SAS – Tous droits réservés