The managerial conversion of senior civil servants : a convenient myth for the French local welfare state?
By: ALCARAS, Jean-Robert
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Contributor(s): MARREL, Guillaume | MARCHAND, Christèle | NONJON, Magali.
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ArticlePublisher: Los Angeles : Sage, Mar. 2016International Review of Administrative Sciences 82, 1, p. 190-207Abstract: Has New Public Management really been rolled out homogenously across the board? Drawing on research into the viewpoints and practices of a particular category of senior civil servants in France (those in charge of local welfare policy), this article takes a critical look at this assumption of convergence towards NPM. Behind a discursive convergence that remains superficial and partial, the reality tends more towards heterogeneous and contextualized appropriations of New Public Management benchmarks often leading to new forms of bureaucracy. In a context where the position of public officials has been weakened, management seems to have been adopted as a source of professional legitimization. By adopting this very useful managerial posture, these civil servants find comfort in perpetuating the myth of convergence
Has New Public Management really been rolled out homogenously across the board? Drawing on research into the viewpoints and practices of a particular category of senior civil servants in France (those in charge of local welfare policy), this article takes a critical look at this assumption of convergence towards NPM. Behind a discursive convergence that remains superficial and partial, the reality tends more towards heterogeneous and contextualized appropriations of New Public Management benchmarks often leading to new forms of bureaucracy. In a context where the position of public officials has been weakened, management seems to have been adopted as a source of professional legitimization. By adopting this very useful managerial posture, these civil servants find comfort in perpetuating the myth of convergence
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