The Transatlantic Transfer of Administrative Ideas between France and the United States in the 20th Century

Céline Mavrot’s dissertation consists of theoretical and empirical research on the transfer of administrative ideas between France and the U.S. From both a history of discipline perspective and a socio-historical perspective, the focus lies on American administrative concepts and methods as they were imported by French scholars during the construction process of French administrative sciences. The dissertation was carried out at the Kompetenzzentrum für Public Management – University of Bern and the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Administration Publique – University of Lausanne. It was supervised by Prof. Fritz Sager and is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).

Point of Departure

The French tradition of studying public administration lies at the antipode of American Public Administration. The importation of methods and concepts from America, however, lies at the heart of postwar attempts of public law theoreticians to create an administrative science in France. The analysis of particular adaptations of American concepts and methods by French authors allows seeing how an adjustment to the French, strongly juridical theoretical framework was nevertheless made possible. Later, American administrative ideas were diversely appropriated by sociology and political science scholars. By focusing on these processes, the analysis contributes to filling a research gap with regard to the history of both French administrative sciences and the transatlantic transfer of administrative ideas.

Research Question

How did the importation and adaptation of American Public Administration concepts and methods influence the development of the different currents of thought in French administrative sciences?

Method 

• Qualitative Text Analysis (Hermeneutics)

Results

Until the Second World War, the study of public administration in France was quasi monopolized by administrative law. In the aftermath of the war, however, many initiatives flourished in order to create an administrative science. The initial sketches of this new academic discipline came mainly from public law professors, and were presented as a necessary complement to administrative law. Administrative science was intended to provide a more flexible theoretical framework than traditional administrative law, which was accused of having become obsolete with regard to the numerous institutional breakthroughs that characterized the postwar period. Administrative science was intended to help resolving the theoretical dilemmas faced by public law theoreticians, which could not be resolved with the merely normative administrative law. The latter emergence of administrative science was marked by differential uses of Public Administration concepts that have to be replaced in a relational analysis of the development of French sociology and political science. Retracing these processes allow us to understand the meaning of the importation of American Public Administration concepts and methods that lie at the heart of the French administrative science.