Influence of the European Union and the Euro on Public Management Rules in France

Abstract

The European Union and the euro played a major role, and even a decisive one, in the political transformations of public management in the French society. This transformation is characterized by a set of regulatory and legislative texts reorganizing the procedures and functioning of public administration. The adoption of a structure based on «agencies», some of which may be called «independent» is of course the most spectacular appearance of this transformation.
Gradually we see developing a «government of rules» that reduces ever more the scope of political action. It represents, for some, an immanent tendency in parliamentary democracy; this is the argument of Carl Schmitt. Furthermore, the 2007-2008 financial crises led to a latent crisis of the Economic and Monetary Union. It led to an important pivot in the forms of governance and the establishment, within the Euro zone, a disciplinary structure that infl uences economic policies.
This raises an important issue about democracy.