Une mémoire fonctionnelle
By: LEGENDRE, Pierre
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ArticlePublisher: Paris : ENA, avr./jui. 2002Revue Française d'Administration Publique 102, p. 223-228Abstract: Memory, understood as a complex process of reconstructing the past, is one of many social constructs whose function is both to preserve the past and prove the legitimacy of what is done in the present. Seen from this angle, the memory of the administration, as preserved in its archives, enables the administrative state to found its present action. As such, memory is above all a process of censure : its workings are always selective, and choices are made not on the basis of objective scientific reasoning, but in the light of current ideals and ideologies ; memory, in this context, can be seen as referring to an institutional fantasy. Since the passion for storing archives often goes along with the illusion of transparency, it is all the more necessary to reflect on our relationship to the past in order to better understand the meaning of the administrative states traditions and the theologico-juridical foundations of our system.
Memory, understood as a complex process of reconstructing the past, is one of many social constructs whose function is both to preserve the past and prove the legitimacy of what is done in the present. Seen from this angle, the memory of the administration, as preserved in its archives, enables the administrative state to found its present action. As such, memory is above all a process of censure : its workings are always selective, and choices are made not on the basis of objective scientific reasoning, but in the light of current ideals and ideologies ; memory, in this context, can be seen as referring to an institutional fantasy. Since the passion for storing archives often goes along with the illusion of transparency, it is all the more necessary to reflect on our relationship to the past in order to better understand the meaning of the administrative states traditions and the theologico-juridical foundations of our system.
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