Summaries of Articles published in French and Spanish
| Date | 01 December 1968 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236803400408 |
| Published date | 01 December 1968 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
i
Summaries
of
Articles
published
in
French
and
Spanish
Information
Processing
in
Public
Administration
Guy
BRAIBANT
This
study
aims
at
examining
the
conse-
quences
of
information
processing,
with
spe-
cial
reference
to
the
problems
which
may
face
French
lawyers
or
administrators
owing
to
its
increasing
use
in
public
administration.
A
rapid
survey
seems
to
show
that
the
problems
fall
into
four
categories,
according
to
whether
they
are
connected
with
the
personnel,
the
or-
ganizational
structure,
the
procedures,
or
the
powers
of
the
administrative
authorities.
1.
Personnel
Some
of
the
personnel
problems,
those of
employment
and
training,
are
shared
with
private
enterprises.
Others
are
peculiar
to
the
public
authorities,
including
those
arising
from
the
regulations.
The
manner
in
which
the
civil
service
is
bound
by
regulations
is
at
variance
with
the
extraordinary
technical
mobility
of
information
processing.
As
technical
progress
is
very
rapid,
specialists
trained
with
certain
types
of
equipment
will
sometimes
be
unable
to
operate
new
machines.
There
is
also
the
very
serious
question
of
salaries,
since
the
specialists
in
government
service
ought
to
be
paid
at
the
same
rates
as
those
in
private
employment,
which
is
hardly
possible
without
upsetting
the
entire
pay
system.
One
very
important
result
is
that,
owing
to
the
difficulties
in
solving
the
pay
problem,
the
authorities
are
-
or
will
be
-
sometimes
inclined
to
call
upon
the
private
sector
for
their
information
processing.
The
organizational
structure
is
thus
affected.
II.
Organizational
Structure
These
problems
may
be
arranged
under
four
headings :
(a)
Organization
of
f
the
information-pro-
cessing
services.
-
No
definite
answers
have
yet
been
given
as
to
what
the
place
of
such
services
in
the
organization
should
be,
whether
they
should
be
independent,
what
degree
of
authority
they
should
exercise
over
other
units,
whether
there
will
one
day
be
an
information-
processing
division
in
each
ministry,
or
whether
there
will
be
a
central
office
for
the
manage-
ment
of
computer
equipment.
The
position
of
the
private
sector,
mentioned
above,
is
an-
other
question
which
arises :
the
research
or-
ganizations,
firms,
and
advisers
called
upon
by
government
services
are
multiplying.
It
may
be
feared
that
this
may
lead
to
a
measure
of
disruption
of
public
authority.
The
situation
may
offer
technical
disadvantages
through
the
transfer
to
public
administration
of
business
experience,
and
thus
gradually
change
the
pub-
lic
services
through
the
use
of
management
models
designed
for
enterprises
with
funda-
mentally
different
aims.
It
may
also
have
political
drawbacks
as
regards
the
State’s
in-
dependence
and
authority
in
dealing
with
the
experts.
So
far,
the
problem
has
only
been
tackled
by
rule
of
thumb.
(b)
The
necessary
reorganization
of
the
con-
ventional
administrative
services
owing
to
computers
or
information
processing.
-
Two
developments
lead
to
the
belief
that
inform-
ation
processing
is
sure
to
break
up
the
long-
established
partitions.
One
is
the
tendency
to-
wards
integrated
management,
as
exemplified
bey
staff
salaries
all
being
dealt
with
by
a
single
machine,
and
the other
is
the
centralization
effected
by
information
or
data
banks,
which
requires
the
co-operation
of
several
services
and
raises
interdepartmental
considerations.
(c)
The
reorganization
of
the
control
services
and
inspectorates
and
the
change
in
their
relations
with
the
operational
civil
service.
-
Control
is
made
easier
and
its
established
forms
may
be
brought
into
question.
And
new
prob-
lems
arise,
since
there
is
the
two-sided
question
of
control
by
computers
and
the
control
of
computers.
(d)
Centralization.
-
Information
processing
may
be
a
centralizing
factor
owing
to
the
high
cost
of
the
means
employed.
It
may
also
be
a
decentralizing
factor
by
facilitating
the
work
of
decentralized
communities
and
increasing
their
scope
of
action
by
making
a
decentralized
system
orderly,
for
instance
in
the
field
of
Education,
or
again
facilitating
control
by
the
central
authority,
which
would
then
more
willingly
devolve
its
powers,
over
an
area
authority.
III.
Administrative
Procedure
The
growth
of
information
processing
must
lead
to
a
thorough
change
in
decision-making
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