Administration et société : planification et régulations bureaucratiques

Abstract

Administration and society: democratic planning and controls, by Lucine Nizard The complexity of the relationships existing between administration and society is matched by the number and variety of models which set out to describe them. The aim of analysis should be to note this complexity and reveal its organisational structure. The only approach which appears capable of incorporating this wealth of established relationships is one which sees administrations as being at the same time closed and open, autonomous and dependent, a means of intervention in social relations and an area through which these relations are refracted, a transmission channel and a source of authority. Apart from this, as a sub-system of the political, economic and social systems, the administration fulfills roles which are sometimes contradictory; historically speaking, planning represents a possible means of solving these inconsistencies. It may be postulated that the relative breakdown of the state machinery, which it is the aim of planning to reduce, was essential to social cohesion in that it made pragmatically possible various alliances which broadened the social and political support at the disposal of the dominant class. If a predominantly economic overall management were to prevail, calling into question the variety of specific controls and political alliances by "rationalizing" the allocation of resources, the continued existence of this social cohesion could be endangered. [Revue française de science politique XXIII (2), avril 1973, pp. 199-229.]