SCIENCES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ - N° 71 - mai 2007
The production of public policies and the profession of councillor
Edited by Anne-Cécile DOUILLET and Cécile ROBERT

Anne-Cécile DOUILLET, Cécile ROBERT, Political leaders making local public policies  [Text in french]
Françoise de BARROS, Local councillors and public policies from the inter-war period to the 80s' : revealing two storehouses of patronage
Cesare MATTINA, Political leaders in action. Redistribution and transformation of patronage in two French and Italian cities
Anne-Cécile DOUILLET, Political leaders and their territories. Representation and public action in local development policies
Gilles PINSON, Governing large European cities. Forms of action and legitimisation of political leaders in Venice and Manchester
Jacques de MAILLARD, Local politicians confronted with challenges to law and order

ARGUMENTS
Pascal RICAUD, Alternative local media and construction of public micro-spaces at the borders. The participative democracy in Europe between realities and projection
Martine REGOURD, Regional museums and the reconstruction of territories
Stefan BRATOSIN, Media coverage of politics in the local press : a non-ostensive contribution to social geography
Véronique ROUSSEL, Dominique VOLLET, Public policies and the retired in rural areas: between sectors and territories ?

NOTES DE LECTURE

 
Françoise de BARROS, Local councillors and public policies from the inter­war period to the 80s' : revealing two storehouses of patronage

Abstract
An investigation covering two periods and five different local councils reveals a similar use of investments in two specific areas of public policy: unemployment aid for the inter-war period; housing and town planning between the 50's and the 80's. Because of their specific codes of management, these policies run as a storehouse of patronage action for local councillors as they give them leeway to individually allot citizens with state financed goods. This article shows the diversity of local political practice in the use of this system and widens the perspective to a general consideration of the practice of political patronage.

Key-words : local council administration; public policies; patronage, housing, aid.

 
Cesare MATTINA, Political leaders in action. Redistribution and transformation of patronage in two French and Italian cities

Abstract
This paper analyses the transformation of elected councillors' role in public policies as an outcome of changes in political patronage. We argue that the decline in public assets (public employment, social housing) traditionally prone to patronage, has produced a change in the relationship between councillors' political activities (being re-elected, leading a political career, ) and their involvement in local public policies. The French and Italian cities of Marseilles and Naples are traditionally considered as examples of patronage and corrupt political behaviour. However, recent events show that in these two cities political leaders no longer systematically govern with these practices. The decline in public assets prone to patronage has modified the political legitimacy of councillors, leading them to invest more in the construction of institutional policy networks and to acquire technical and managerial skills.

Key-words: profession of councillor, political patronage, city management.

 
Anne-Cécile DOUILLET, Political leaders and their territories. Representation and public action in local development policies

Abstract
This article intends to analyse the role of elected councillors in policy-making processes, taking as an example their involvement in contractual local development policies. These policies are symbolic of changes in the way public action is conducted in France and therefore offer an ideal ground to observe how such changes impact the way local elected representatives participate in policy making. Paying special attention to the links between political careers and participation in policy building, the paper leads to the conclusion that the representation of a territory is still an important motivating force behind the action of elected councillors and interceding on behalf of their constituency with public authorities is a prevalent mode of action for many of them, even if the trend is to emphasize their involvement in social networks and in projects affecting much larger areas than their electoral strongholds.

Key-words : local councillors, representation, territory, public action, local development.

 
Gilles PINSON, Governing large European cities. Forms of action and legitimisation of political leaders in Venice and Manchester

Abstract
Considering Venice and Manchester and the large urban projects in which councillors are involved, this paper intends to describe the rise of a new generation of urban political leaders. The characteristic of these leaders is that they are more involved than their predecessors in urban policymaking, at the expense of their involvement in activities of mobilisation and maintenance of electoral supports. Thus, these leaders have daily practices, allotment of time and forms of sociability that bring them in contact rather with social groups that can mobilise resources for urban policies than with groups that can only valorise voting resources. Paradoxically, the slighter involvement of these politicians in sociability networks that enabled their predecessors to politically control urban societies provides more leeway in terms of policymaking. While this type of relationship with urban society strengthens urban leaders' capacity to act, it is not reassuring for the evolution of democracy and political mobilisation in European cities.

Key words : leader, town, town planning, legitimacy, Venice, Manchester.

 
Jacques de MAILLARD, Local politicians confronted with challenges to law and order

Abstract
This article seeks to answer the following question: how and why have local politicians become involved in local law and order policies since the 80's. Using data from different French localities, it is argued that the process of politicisation of law and order proceeds from local political competition but relies more globally on the perceived fear of crime among the population. Local politicians have become involved in two different ways : they have sought to influence the policies of the national administration at the local level, such as the police ; they have created some instruments controlled by municipalities. They have encountered two limits in these two areas: the institutional fragmentation and the professional specialisation that characterises the field. It seems that their involvement in local policies has been characterised by numerous conflicts and tensions.

Key-words : local councillors, law and order policies, state, professionals.

 
Pascal RICAUD, Alternative local media and construction of public micro-spaces at the borders. The participative democracy in Europe between realities and projection

Abstract
In a context of decentralization of the French State and, jointly, of widening of the European Union and revalorization of local spaces (subsidiarity principle), new local media appeared from the very start of the Eighties. They represented and still represent for the majority an alternative to the media of mass and, more widely, to the media in monopoly situation on a regional or national area. As this article shows, these ones also followed interesting policies of decentralization and opening on Europe and on transborder minorities... These phenomena can all the more interestingly be observed at the borders, standing at the crossroads of the local and Europe. These media are witnesses and sometimes actors of new forms of governorship and participative experiments, implying the civil society; they also appear as new spaces for expression of both active minorities (Community radios), and new political actors and associative movements (radios and local press in particular). With them, one attends the emergence of public micro-spaces and more widely of a new media public space.

Key-words : proximity, reliance, local media, public space, Europe.

 
Martine REGOURD, Regional museums and the reconstruction of territories

Abstract
The French National Museums have brought to public attention, particularly because of the Louvre extension in Abu Dhabi, a new policy according to which these institutions must contribute to the aura of France's trademark. The same logic can be found in regional museums. They play a major role in the reconstruction of territories of which they are becoming indicators. They are at the basis of communicational strategies at stake in a largely balkanized administrative context. The collections are being redistributed, specialised, in the aim of increasing competitiveness of the territories within a network. All these movements intend to generate a huge transformation of the institution.

Key-words : museums, territories, regions, patrimonial policies, communication.

 
Stefan BRATOSIN, Media coverage of politics in the local press : a non-ostensive contribution to social geography

Abstract
This article attempts to throw light on the debate about the documentary contribution of the local press to social geography. More exactly, it aims at highlighting the contribution of the media which participates in a non-ostensive textuality. In this perspective, the analysis is based on the study of the treatment of politics by the media in the press of Calarasi, an average-sized town in the south-east of Romania. The aim is to show that, through non-ostensive references, the media treatment of politics in this press participates in marking the boundaries of the social reality of a territory even in conditions where the question of the relevance of media accounts and the politisation of the press in clearly expressed.

Key-words : Calarasi (Romania), document, social geography, political media coverage, local press, territory.

 
Véronique ROUSSEL, Dominique VOLLET, Public policies and the retired in rural areas: between sectors and territories ?

Abstract
The gerontology policy was analysed in four rural French areas with different accessibility and socio-economic characteristics (Haut-Forez in the Loire, the Jonte valley in the Lozère, Bourganeuf in the Creuse, Lezoux in the Puy-de-Dôme). Although the national objective of maintaining elderly people at home for as long as possible is shared by all, the organizational structures set up vary greatly according to the area. Not all areas have established formal ("gerontology coordination") or even informal links between social and sanitary sectors. However, all areas share the same lack of human and financial resources. Government-led gerontology measures remain highly limited in all local projects.

Keywords : public policy, rural development, the retired, policy analysis.