Governing from the Centre Core Executive Coordiation in France

by Hayward, Jack; Wright, Vincent

• ISBN13: 9780199256013
• ISBN10: 0199256012
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Two leading authors challenge the assumption that France has a well coordinated government. The constitutional, political,and policy frameworks of coordination are critically assessed in relation to the central actors and spending ministries, as well as the formal and informal mechanisms ofcoordination. Four case studies are examined; the European Union, budget, privatization and immigration policy processes. The book concludes with forthright findings on a fragment executive struggling to steer a disparate and partially paralyzed institutional structure.The research findings offer precise cautionary recommendations to policy makers against the dangers of overconfident recourse to 'joined up' government. The findings are relevant, not merely to France, but generally to Western states more generally.

Author Biography

Jack Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Oxford and Research Professor of Politics, Hull University.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	vii
Abbreviations	xi
PART I: THE COMPLEXITIES OF FRENCH CORE EXECUTIVE COORDINATION
The French Context of Coordination: A Fractured Indivisible Republic	3	(21)
The Normative, Political, and Administrative Frameworks	24	(35)
Hierarchical and Horizontal Coordination: The Central Actors	59	(37)
Vertical Fragmentation: The Spending Ministries	96	(37)
PART II: SECTORAL POLICY COORDINATION: FOUR CASE STUDIES
European Union Coordination and the Core Executive	133	(31)
Budget Coordination and the Core Executive	164	(24)
Tactical Privatisation: Changing the Mix in a Mixed Economy	188	(33)
Coordinating the Response to Immigration Pressures: An Unending Quest	221	(34)
PART III: CONCLUSIONS
Overall Coordination: The Impracticable Imperative	255	(18)
Bibliography	273	(10)
Index	283