Les hauts fonctionnaires croient-ils à leurs mythes ? L'apport des approches cognitives à l'analyse des engagements dans les politiques de réforme de l'État. Quelques exemples français (1988-1997)

Abstract

Do senior civil servants believe in their own myths ? the contribution of the cognitive approach to the analysis of commitment to state reform policies. French examples (1988-1997) State reform policies, by dint of repetition in their announcements, end constituting a mythical, anonymous and indirect narrative that provides information about the state (its dysfunctions, shortcomings, ideal characteristics, etc.) and simultaneously celebrates both the heroic and the routine dimensions of commitment to reform. Seeking to answer a legitimate question - "do senior civil servants believe in their own myths ? " -, the article suggests that one should inves­tigate how they believe, and formulate hypotheses about the complexity of their beliefs and the varieties of their reform commitment. After a discussion of neo-institutionalist theories and hypotheses drawn from the writings of R. Boudon and L. Festinger, two cognitive mechanisms are shown to structure partially the reformers' commitment : acceptance of reform ideas, cons­trained by the actors' attitudes and by their position in the institutional order, and diversity of beliefs in the feasibility of the action. In order to account for the diversity of adjustments of beliefs to practices, the article provides many illustrations based on administrative reforms car­ried out in France since 1989.

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