Critical Book Reviews

Published date01 December 1999
Date01 December 1999
DOI10.1177/0020852399654008
Subject MatterArticles
Isabelle Orgozozo
L’Etat au coeur, Pierre Calmane and A. Talmant, Desclée De Brouwer, Paris,
1997, 212 pp. ISBN: 220–04054–2.
This book provides reflection on the new roles and tasks of the state. It is based
on a dual professional experience shared by the two authors: as Subdivisionary
Engineers of the Ministry of Equipment in the Valenciennois Region (France)
and later, their international activities carried out in the framework of the Charles
Léopold Foundation for Human Progress.
This dual experience led them to formulate a series of observations and
hypotheses of particular interest on ‘good government’, notably founded on
practical and specific experiences at the local and international level.
As the proposed book review cannot cover all the examples provided, likewise
it cannot pretend to summarize the originality and the wealth of thought involved
in the specific demonstration of these hypotheses. On the other hand, an attempt
will be made to set out the main argument of the book which consists in showing
the inadaptability of French administrative organization, both in its principles
(singular and central power, unique responsibility, the duty to obey without dis-
cussion) and in its means (the sectorialization of needs and the organization of
levels of action), to meet the challenges that a global and ever more fragmented
society raises.
In the introduction the authors explain the inadaptability of the French
administration. They maintain that French ideology concerning the state is hier-
archical, church-oriented and imperial. Directly following the establishment of
royal, sacred power, the state became more secular throughout the Enlightenment
era and during the French Revolution, but without basically changing its nature.
After the Revolution, the state incarnated both science and reason and, because of
this, tended to place itself outside and above society, at the service of the people,
but above them. At best, this gave birth to an ideology of public service, a
theology of service inseparable from a theology of authority but, at worst, it gave
rise to an arrogant cast which, passing from the ministry to the magistery, has put
the Republican monarchy at its disposition.
The consequences of such a conceptualization of the state may be summarized
in two observations: the first touches on the fact that the difficulties encountered
602 International Review of Administrative Sciences 65(4)
Isabelle Orgozozo is Head, Research and Forecasting Committee, General Directorate of
Administration and Civil Service, France.
International Review of Administrative Sciences [0020–8523(199912)65:4]
Copyright © 1999 IIAS. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New
Delhi), Vol.65 (1999), 602–604; 011779
03_IRAS65/4articles 11/11/99 11:05 am Page 602

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