No philosophy, please,we are managers!

Claude RochetProfesseur des universités

Institut de la Gestion Publique et du Développement Economique, ParisInstitut de Management Public et de Gouvernance Territoriale, Aix-en-Provence

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Summary

Why managerialism needs to be outstrip?Drawing the lessons from nations’building: the UK and USA casesBack to the basics of political philosophyThe revival of an euro-atlantic debateConsequences for the training of publicmanagers

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Doing things right is not doing the rightthings

Efficiency is notefficacy…

Public health: the moreefficient and the moreeffective, the more costly !

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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So, what is a good public decision?

Learning from F. HayekRejection of logical positivism and neoclassicaleconomy and social constructivismA central role to the State: replacing gov’t by men bygov’t by lawLaw as a natural selection processBut, where does a legitimate law comes from? Hayekfails in answering this question:

– « J’ai toujours peine, personnellement à croire que moralité et utilité, par harmoniepréétablie, coïncident pleinement (…) Je ne refuserai pas mon admiration à ladémonstration de Hayek, mais je réserverai ma foi. Les libéraux ont parfoistendance, comme les marxistes, à croire que l’ordre du monde pourrait réconciliernos aspirations avec la réalité ». (Raymond Aron, coments on « Road toSerfdom »)

Hayek’s legacy: the question is NOT State or market, buta problem embedded within the theory of knowledge

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Introducing ergodic hypothesis

If there is no determined law (of history or of themarket) to drive our decisions

Can we make anything? No!Institutions are rules which reduce uncertainty(D. North)

If the system has an ergodic behavior, deterministicmethods may work

But, when technological disruptions triggerparadigm shift, institutions do no longer work

The system has a non ergodic behaviorAdaptive learning is the keyThe role of the State is to foster this process and toupdate the rules

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Back to the basics: Politics

What is a good society? Does such thing as thecommon good exists? What is a good public decision?

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Credit and finance as aneconomic activity per seintroduce disequilibrium andcorruptio

Country vs Court in XVIII centuryEngland

With the birth of the financial crises(1720) the key issue becomesarticulating civic virtue witheconomic developmentIndustry and commerce are keydrivers of change, but unable to keepapart from financial follyPolitical virtue is the fruit of reasonthat must must counterweight theirrationality of “Wind Koopers”

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Learning from history and nations’building

The founding of the USAOriginates in the corruption of England“The end of classical politics” G. Wood“ The lesser evil empire”, from positive to negativeliberty (I. Berlin)

The classical question of the common good isrepealed…

… but it strikes back with the euro-atlanticrepublicanism: The Cambridge School (Skinner,Pettit), The French school (Spitz), and the revival ofMachiavellian studies (Viroli)

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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The key issue of the euro Atlantic debate

Does such thing as the common good exists?The liberal individualistic hypothesis never deliveredThere is no contradiction between private good andcommon good

A co-evolutionary and reinforcing process

No market economy without civic virtueMontesquieu “Agir pour l’amour des lois de son pays, l’amour dela patrie et de l’égalité”

Civic virtue acts as informal institutionsNo cost, high effectiveness!

The common good is the very source of legitimacy…… and the very source of a non deterministicevolutionary process adapted to a non-ergodic worldA never ending process for an emergent and resilientanswer

or

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Public management as “practical arts”

Commongood

Knowledge« What »(épistémé)

Knowledgeepistemic basis

Knowledgeempirical basis

Conjecturalknowledge(métis)

Practicalwisdom(phronesis)

Managementpublic

Playing “spirit of finesse” against“spirit of geometry” (Pascal)

Malte,Sept 2,

2009Claude Rochet

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Educating the elite: competenciesappropriated to a neo-weberian state

Instruction : Inherited values from the weberian model

Education : New competencies

Values to be updated: • The State as a public policy architect for the

common good • Specific public law as a consequence of the

inequality between citizens and the State • Public law statute for civil servants

Competencies appropriated to an open and uncertain world:

• Strategic scenario building in a non-deterministic environment

• Citizen integration o in public decision making o in services conception

• A logic of public value creation measurable and assessable

• Information systems as a l ever of administrative reform

Values to be abandonned: • Hierarchy • Exclusive employment • Labour division based on procedure

New values to be promoted: • Redefining roles and responsibilities between

center and peripheries • Develop an horizontal approach of public policies • Valorizing mobility public private and private pub-

lic • Modular progressive and resilient organization of

public services