Contenu du sommaire : Politiques publiques et relations internationales

Currently, the research agendas of Public Policy Analysis and International Relations are converging and thus have begun to challenge the epistemplogical distance between these two parts of political science. Two trends that are evident in both are accelerating this process : the Europeanisation, internationalisation and transnationalisation of public action ; the institutionnalisation of international relations, the consolidation of international regimes and the reinvention of multilateralism. This article argues that both of these « sub-disciplines » can benefit from the cross-ferilizations which can arise from studying « international public policies », be they the foreign policy of states or the European Union or the « multilateral public action » produced by the major international organizations.

Technical standards take such a big part in our daily life (cars, mobile phones, food and so on) that it seems to become an invisible phenomenon. The construction of these standards is mainly embedded in international arenas and networks. Scholars still know few of actors and know-how in this area. The paper tries to analyze simultaneously the innovation processes of firms, the standard-making work, and the structuring of markets. The analytical frame links together science studies frameworks and Schumpeterian political economy. We assume that standard-making processes can be analyzed as paths through which files are monopolized.

Current transferred patterns of inter-governmental cooperation between various regions are marking out a standard in international public policies of migration. In order to clarify the process and ambition of such mutual borrowing, this article reappraises national public policy concepts as a support to understand international migration policies. These public policy investigation methods facilitate figuring out how such transfer paradigms function ; thus various ground rules can be identified : actors, the dissemination of ideas from one country or institution to another. It also positions such transfer as a transitional aim for policy convergence and towards a global governance for international migration.

The article aims at assessing the added value of policy analysis to the understanding of a case-study : the genesis of the Franco-German cooperation in the early 1960's. A review of the literature reveals a strong focus on how de Gaulle and Adenauer conceived the strategic issues of the time, i.e. national power and security. Graham Allison's paradigm helps to point out that domestic actors interacted at the sub-system (governmental) level in order to influence the policy. But modern policy analysis can go a step further than this classical model in Foreign Policy Analysis. The study of the policy formulation and implementation leads to bringing two factors back in the analysis : ideas and institutions.

This articles questions the significance of instruments in public action, drawing on indicators traditionally applied in exploring French underprivileged areas. Two distinct locations served as testing grounds : a deprived suburb of Paris and a small country town neighborhood. The surprisingly result is that the « quiet-and-rural » place is much less well off than the « abandoned » suburb, nevertheless the State grants it receives are extremely low. The article investigates the role of the State in leveling out social disparity and the functions of political institutions within French society. We argue that public action instruments build up from fair and rational principles intended to assist the actors. However, overtime these have grown to be accepted to the detriment of pre-existing political issues. Finally, they contribute to typify common sense. Only a constant reflection on the instruments can eventually avoid their turning astray and altering their original rationale.

French hip-hop culture is deep-rooted in urban social problems ; still, public actions have promoted it in enhancing, for example, the coming out of success models. Public authorities have been trying their best to respond to the artists'expectations through favouring social mix in public and cultural places, and through greeting the expertise of some hip-hop artists. However, even if public authorities may be blamed for their instrumental posture, the artists'aspirations are quite conflicting : they anticipate being accredited by the cultural policies which they benefit from while still maintaining links with their original audience.