Political-Administrative Relations: Evolving Models of Politicization
Résumé
Political-administrative relations have been transformed in most European countries along the lines of a double process. On the one hand, managerial rules have been absorbed or domesticated by administrative elites in a complex strategy aiming at differentiating layers of power within the political-administrative sphere and drawing new frontiers between managers and top-managers enjoying a ‘political’ status. On the other hand, partisan politicization of appointments or careers reveal an attempt to privatize power and to put aside neutral professionals. In most, if not all, European countries, the 2008 fiscal crisis has fed a popular rejection of both the political class and the privatization of power while the social and professional status of civil servant were still valued both in economic and social terms.