FRANCE IN SEARCH OF A NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER

In recent years, drastic political changes in France have produced not hing but new questions on the national administrative pattern. The ''a lternance'' did not basically alter public administration weight or so cial structure. At the same time, as a new institutional game was inst alled (decentralization, EC integration process, new demands coming fr om citizens), administrative change (''modernization'') gained new int erest. A general discussion of this modernization process (civil servi ce management, policy evaluation, etc.,) shows that, in many respects, administrative reform is a substitute for political change. The tradi tional State-centred political system recently gave way to a pluralist ic policy-centred system. But, if there are no more ideological contro versies around public administration, nor are there any more political guidelines for the modernization process.