LASCOUMES, Pierre

Pour une formation à la gouvernementalité : le fonctionnaire, légiste ou manager public? - Paris : IIAP, juil./sept. 1989

The current legal trainig of civil servants fails to make adequate provisions for the teaching of law as it is actually practiced in everyday situations. Although they are the main actors in the formulation and implementation of public policy, civil servants are invariably left to fend for themselves in this field. The development of an alternative training programme hinges first and foremost on overcoming the opposition between legal expert and public administrator: the two dimensions are present in administrative practice at one and the same time. This distinctions may be overcome if one regards the law as a readily available resource lying within the reach of both public and provate actors in the policy-making process; and if one designs rules, not with a view to their rigid enforcement but with a view to encouraging discussions between the parties concerned on the very subject of their application. Only then will it be possible to come up with alternative training guidelines. Rather than seeking to preserve the illusion of a black box or proposing even more tecnical skills and specialization, this training should prepare policymakers to improvise one solution after another in the field of public policy