Un militantisme réformateur : Les manuels du nouveau management public

Abstract

Running government like a business has been used and pursued as a resource of legitimacy since the 1980s. Policymaking and public administration as a profession have undergone far-reaching transformations by the incorporation of managerial knows and know-hows. Such principles have gained a great scientific credit once integrated into handbooks. They turned into a recognized academic discipline. This article reviews the ways and means of scientificizing new public management (NPM). The argument is based on the study of more than sixty English and French handbooks. These books contain assumptions attached to a specific social group, that are formulated in such a way that the instructions appear merely objective. Nonetheless, NPM as a discipline is nothing new. The old wines of scientific management, public choice and sociology of organizations are to be found in the new bottle of performance? and accountability?. A typology of NPM entrepreneurs shows various profiles. Consultants, scholars and top civil servants coalize to blur frontiers that used to separate civil service from private sector. The topic goes beyond the specialists™ scope to address a whole rhetoric of performance, as well as a more general issue of the citizen consumer. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.