The Impact of Political Leadership on Bureaucratic Institutions in France: the Case of Datar
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THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ON BUREAUCRATIC INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE: THE CASE OF DATAR JUNE BURNHAM LSE Submitted for examination for the PhD degree of the University of London UMI Number: U210674 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U210674 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 to q e s 2 ABSTRACT The thesis questions the common assertion that only exceptional political leaders can implement their aims, such are the institutional constraints on their action. This assertion is examined in relation to DATAR, the regional development agency of France, where the self- confident and compartmentalised bureaucracy would be expected to provide leaders with a difficult challenge. The analytical framework is derived from Blondel's Political Leadership, one of the few texts to assume that a full spectrum of leadership potential exists. The thesis starts by showing that political leaders could shape bureaucratic organisations to their own needs. Ministers interested in regional policy adapted its structures from a weak ministerial division to a model inter-ministerial agency, DATAR, whose reputational power was substantially affected by the political leadership's support for the policy. Political leaders were able to recruit DATAR's top staff on the basis of the criteria they chose; and to make DATAR's size, budget and work activities respond to their own policy aims. Through DATAR they could create, modify and direct interministerial committees and budgets to fit their particular objectives. The thesis then assesses the leadership's impact on policy instruments in two contrasted domains to judge how much leaders are helped or hindered by bureaucratic and other institutions, including DATAR. Whether on roads policy or on regionalisation, the political leadership mostly achieved incremental change, either because that was what it sought, or because its ambitions were curtailed by internal conflict and local politicians as much as by bureaucratic opposition. Sometimes leaders failed to make headway, and occasionally they asserted their political will in a dramatic fashion. Overall, the variety and strength of outcomes demonstrate that political leaders have a capacity to make an impact on bureaucratic organisations and to re-orient bureaucratic activities towards their particular political goals that is far greater than even Blondel anticipated. 3 CONTENTS Abstract 2 List of Figures 6 Abbreviations 8 Acknowledgements 9 Chapter 1 POLITICAL LEADERS AND BUREAUCRATIC INSTITUTIONS 11 An under-evaluated political leadership 12 Assessing the impact of political leaders 17 - Blondel's research strategy 17 - The thesis strategy 22 - Choice of case-study 25 - The research design 28 Chapter 2 RESHAPING ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES: THE CREATION 33 OF DATAR The Service de Vamenagement du territoire 33 - Initiation by Vichy, 1941-44 35 - Restructuring by the Provisional Government, 1944-46 37 - Removing the regional tier, 1946 38 The Direction de Vamenagement du territoire 39 - Restructuring within the Ministry of Construction, 1948-52 4 0 - Economic re-orientation, 1953-56 41 - Adding interministerial provision, 1958-62 45 An ephemeral Ministry for amenagement du territoire 48 The Delegation a Vamenagement du territoire et a Vaction regionale 49 Conclusions 53 Chapter 3 LINKING DATAR TO THE LEADERSHIP: POSITIONAL OR 56 PERSONAL? DATAR's location in the ministerial structures 59 - The arguments about the effects of different locations 60 - An empirical assessment of the effects of location 67 The effects of economic contingencies 70 Leadership interests: an empirical analysis 74 Conclusions 82 4 Chapter 4 RESPONSIVENESS, COMPETENCE AND LOYALTY: 85 CONTROLLING DATAR Choosing the delegue 86 - The political leadership's powers to appoint 8 6 - The constraints within a multiple political leadership 90 - Professional competence and personal loyalty 93 Steering DATAR's recruitment and activities 97 - A lightweight and flexible administration 9 7 - An interdisciplinary organisation 103 - The responsiveness of teams to leadership priorities 106 Conclusions 110 Chapter 5 STEERING POLICY THROUGH DATAR: THE USE BY POLITICAL 112 LEADERS OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL TOOLS The administrative tools 113 - Operating the committees CIAT and CIADT 113 - Other committees, commissions and groups 124 The financial tools: funds and budgets 129 - The prime minister's budget for(management du territoire 129 - FIAT, FNADT and other funds for regional development 134 - Control of ministerial budgets 139 Conclusions 143 Chapter 6 CASE STUDY 1: ROADS PLANNING AND FUNDING 146 - The chief bureaucratic players: the Ponts, the Plan and the Finance Ministry 147 The comparative analysis 152 - Data collection and analysis 152 - Drawing conclusions from the comparative tables 165 Exercising political leadership 167 - The positional resources of political leaders 167 - The influence of bureaucratic organisations 170 - Financial, technical and contingent constraints and opportunities 173 - Implementation and persistence 175 Conclusions 175 5 Chapter 7 CASE STUDY 2: REGIONALISATION 181 - The institutional actors: prefects, elus, the DAT and DATAR 183 The comparative analysis 188 - Data collection and analysis 188 - Drawing conclusions from the comparative tables 191 Exercising political leadership 202 - The positional resources of political leaders 202 - The influence of bureaucratic organisations 205 - The constraints posed by other policy actors 208 - Institutional and contingent constraints and opportunities 2 0 9 - Implementation and persistence 211 Conclusions 211 Chapter 8 CONCLUSION: THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL LEADERS ON 217 BUREAUCRATIC INSTITUTIONS The impact of political leaders on a bureaucracy 220 - Reshaping organisational structures 220 - The relative importance of positional links and political commitment 222 - Responsiveness, loyalty and competence 2 2 4 - Steering policy with administrative and financial tools 226 The impact of political leaders on the policy environment 228 - Roads planning and funding 2 2 9 - Regionalisation 231 Conclusions: Conditions for political leadership 233 BIBLIOGRAPHY 238 APPENDIX A Aminagement du territoire 249 APPENDIX B Multiple sources of data 252 APPENDIX C Political leaders 1944-2004 255 6 FIGURES 1.1 Strategies for analysing the impact of political leaders 23 1.2 Summary of case-study design 29 2.1 Actors in the changes to the organisation of amenagement du territoire 34 2.2 Organisation of French regional planning at national level, 1959-61 46 2.3 Organisation of French regional planning at national level, 1964-65 51 3.1 Location of ministerial responsibility 57 3.2 Reputational power comparators 69 3.3 DATAR's reputational power 1963-92 71 3.4 DATAR's reputational power and location 73 3.5 DATAR's reputational power and economic growth 73 3.6 Leadership interest comparators 75 3.7 Commitment of presidents to amenagement du territoire 76 3.8 Commitment of prime ministers to amenagement du territoire 78 3.9 Political leaders’ interest in amenagement du territoire 80 3.10 DATAR's reputational power and president's commitment 81 3.11 DATAR's reputational power and prime minister's commitment 81 4.1 DATAR delegues 1963-2004 87 4.2 Budgetary posts for DATAR 99 4.3 Categories of DATAR personnel 99 4.4 Number of DATAR staff 1963-2004 100 4.5 Training of DATAR charges de mission 105 4.6 Grands corps membership of senior DATAR personnel 105 4.7 Corps appointments at DATAR 1986-99 107 4.8 The evolution of DATAR's teams 109 5.1 Meetings and decisions of CLAT and CIADT 115 5.2 The president's interest and CIATs 122 5.3 The prime minister's interest and CIATs 122 5.4 Interministerial committees and councils 125 5.5 The prime minister's budget for amenagement du territoire 130 5.6 DATAR's budget, FIAT and FNADT 132 5.7 Specialised funds for amenagement du territoire 136 7 FIGURES, contd 6.1 Roads policy instruments for amenagement du territoire 153 6.2 Example of roads policy database 155 6.3 Roads policy database sources 156 6.4 Roads policy data meta-matrix 157 6.5 Roads policy instruments in date order 163 6.6 Political leaders and the roads planning environment 178 7.1 Political leaders and regionalisation instruments 182 7.2 Example of regionalisation database 189 7.3 Regionalisation database sources 190 7.4 Regionalisation data meta-matrix 192 7.5 Regionalisation analysis charts 198 7.6 The intervention of DAT and DATAR 201 7.7 Political leaders and the regionalisation environment 214 8.1 Political leaders and the institutional and non-institutional environment in the 234 amenagement du territoire domain 8 AdT Amenagement du territoire CGP Commissariat general au Plan CIADT Comite interministeriel d'amenagement et de developpement du territoire CIAT Comite interministeriel d'amenagement du territoire CID Conference interdepartementale CNADT Conseil national d'amenagement et de developpement du territoire CNAT Conseil national d'amenagement du territoire CNER Conseil