La gouvernance territoriale: Une affaire d'état la dimension verticale de la construction de l'action collective dans les territoires

Abstract

The urban governance approach has proved quite fruitful to contribute to the understanding of the transformation of French cities and urban policies in a context of decentralization. In opposition to their predecessors, who focused on vertical relations between the state and local authorities, political scientists and sociologists working on urban governance in the 1990s have emphasized the importance of horizontal coordination between various actors, social groups, and institutions. In doing so, they have tended to overlook the specific role and resources of the state. in this paper, we propose to bring the state back in the scope of urban governance analysis, in order to reconsider the vertical dimension of horizontal coordination processes. Indeed, the central government has delegated to local authorities responsibility for implementing numerous national programs and achieving coherence between the latters. But this devolution doesn't mean further hollowing of the State in urban governance. Quite the reverses, it allows the State to steer at arm's length collective action in the cities through new tools of government such as competitive bidding, performance indicators, and the encouragement of "best practices".