Pouvoir discrétionnaire et redevabilité de la bureaucratie de guichet : les taxateurs d'une caisse de chômage comme acteurs de mise en oeuvre

Résumé en français La thèse de doctorat porte, de manière générale, sur le rôle des acteurs administratifs dans la mise en oeuvre de l'action publique. En particulier, dans le contexte de l'implémentation de la politique suisse d'assurance-chômage, la recherche se focalise sur l'étude de la bureaucratie de guichet, à savoir un type spécifique d'administrations et d'agents publics situés aux premières lignes de l'action étatique et qui sont en contact direct et quotidien avec les usagers. La thèse a pour objectif principal d'obtenir une compréhension détaillée des impacts concrets dont sont porteurs deux types de réformes majeures du secteur public : les réformes de Nouvelle Gestion Publique (NGP) et les nouvelles technologies informatiques. Le questionnement central de la recherche consiste en une étude approfondie des effets de ces réformes sur les bureaucraties de guichet, et en particulier sur deux aspects centraux les concernant : d'une part, le niveau de pouvoir discrétionnaire que les agents publics de base disposent dans l'application de la loi fédérale sur l'assurance-chômage, autrement dit leur marge de manoeuvre ; d'autre part, les manières au travers desquelles ces mêmes agents sont appelés à rendre des comptes quant à leurs actions et leurs décisions, à savoir l'enjeu plus large de la redevabilité publique des acteurs administratifs. Ces enjeux ont été analysés au niveau empirique dans le contexte organisationnel d'une caisse publique cantonale de chômage ayant expérimenté les réformes évoquées ci-dessus. L'organisation choisie a été investiguée au travers d'une étude de cas ethnographique approfondie (observation directe du travail quotidien des agents, entretiens semi-directifs, analyse de documents) pendant une période de six mois environ entre 2008 et 2009. L'analyse empirique fournit quatre résultats : a) de manière générale, les taxateurs de la caisse de chômage disposent d'un faible niveau de pouvoir discrétionnaire ; b) le degré de pouvoir discrétionnaire varie selon le type de tâche ; c) les agents sur le terrain rendent des comptes auprès d'une multiplicité d'acteurs, sur une variété d'aspects de leur travail et au travers de différents mécanismes de contrôle ; d) les outils de NGP et les nouvelles technologies informatiques ont peu d'impact sur l'étendue du pouvoir discrétionnaire des agents mais contribuent à influencer le type de redevabilité publique pratiquée à ce niveau. Summary in English This PhD dissertation deals with the role of public administration in policy implementation. In the Swiss context of unemployment insurance policy, it focuses on street-level bureaucracy, a specific type of public organisations and agents located at the frontline of public action, that is to say low-level civil servants who are in direct, daily and face-to-face contact with citizens. The dissertation aims at a deep understanding of what are the concrete impacts of two main important changes touching public sector organizations : New Public Management reforms (NPM) and Information and Communication technologies (ICT). The main research question consists in assessing the impacts of those reforms on two central issues regarding street-level bureaucrats : on the one hand, the effective degree of discretion frontline agents do have in implementing the federal law on unemployment insurance ; on the other hand, the ways through which these bureaucrats are held accountable about their action and decisions, i.e. accountability regimes at the street-level. These issues have been empirically addressed in the organisational context of a cantonal Unemployment Insurance Funds having experienced the above mentioned reforms. The organisation has been investigated through an in-depth ethnographic case-study (direct observation of daily work, semi-structured interwiews, documentary analysis) in 2008 and 2009 for approximately six months. The empirical analysis indicates that a) in general, street-level agents do exert low degree of policy discretion; b) the level of discretion is variable from one specific task to another ; c) frontline workers are held accountable to many actors, on various aspects of their work and through different mechanisms of control ; d) NPM and ICT instruments have few impact on the issue of policy discretion but more on the type of street-level accountability which is concretely practised at this level.

Towards equivalent health care of prisoners: European soft law and public health policy in Geneva.

Prisoners have a right to health care and to be protected against inhumane and degrading treatment. Health care personnel and public policy makers play a central role in the protection of these rights and in the pursuit of public health goals. This article examines the legal framework for prison medicine in the canton of Geneva, Switzerland and provides examples of this framework that has shaped prisoners' medical care, including preventive measures. Geneva constitutes an intriguing example of how the Council of Europe standards concerning prison medicine have acquired a legal role in a Swiss canton. Learning how these factors have influenced implementation of prison medicine standards in Geneva may be helpful to public health managers elsewhere and encourage the use of similar strategies.

Introducing a first AIDS vaccine in Switzerland: a Policy Delphi analysis.

This preliminary exploration was limited by a number of factors. The format of the study has necessarily induced some form of selection bias of the panelists, because of the complexity of some questions, and the time required to complete the questionnaires. Several issues have not been addressed. One example could be the response to HIV infection occurring in a vaccinee. The study also did not address the difficulties related to the licensing of the vaccine. Indeed, the proposed scenario assumed that the vaccine had been registered as a starting point for the analysis. Finally, it has not been possible to conduct a sensitivity analysis, in order to evaluate how the responses would have been modified if some important characteristics of the vaccine had been modified.Very diverse evaluations were given in response to questions related with attitudes and perception of AIDS and AIDS vaccine. The possibility that vaccine availability or usage can be associated with an increased frequency in risky behaviors was spontaneously mentioned by half of the panelists. The estimation of the proportion of persons at highest risk who would choose to use this vaccine also indicated a high degree of uncertainty. This study offers important lessons. According to a broad and diverse panel of individuals, an incompletely effective AIDS vaccine would result in an additional level of complexity for the AIDS prevention strategy, rather than a simplification. The use of such a vaccine would have to be coupled with counselling. This implies a sustained emphasis on the recommendations which have been central to the STOP AIDS campaigns until now. In addition, consensual issues, as well as other issues more likely to be controversial have been identified. This should greatly help focusing the work of any committee designated to develop and implement a vaccination policy if an AIDS vaccine became available. Finally, our experience with the Policy Delphi indicates that this mode of structured communication could be usefully applied to other public health issues presenting a high visibility as well as a complex relationship with public perception.

Taking "Galton's problem" Seriously : Towards a Theory of Policy Diffusion

This article builds on the recent policy diffusion literature and attempts to overcome one of its major problems, namely the lack of a coherent theoretical framework. The literature defines policy diffusion as a process where policy choices are interdependent, and identifies several diffusion mechanisms that specify the link between the policy choices of the various actors. As these mechanisms are grounded in different theories, theoretical accounts of diffusion currently have little internal coherence. In this article we put forward an expected-utility model of policy change that is able to subsume all the diffusion mechanisms. We argue that the expected utility of a policy depends on both its effectiveness and the payoffs it yields, and we show that the various diffusion mechanisms operate by altering these two parameters. Each mechanism affects one of the two parameters, and does so in distinct ways. To account for aggregate patterns of diffusion, we embed our model in a simple threshold model of diffusion. Given the high complexity of the process that results, strong analytical conclusions on aggregate patterns cannot be drawn without more extensive analysis which is beyond the scope of this article. However, preliminary considerations indicate that a wide range of diffusion processes may exist and that convergence is only one possible outcome.

The policy relevance of wear emissions from road transport, now and in the future : an international workshop report and consensus statement

Road transport emissions are a major contributor to ambient particulate matter concentrations and have been associated with adverse health effects. Therefore, these emissions are targeted through increasingly stringent European emission standards. These policies succeed in reducing exhaust emissions, but do not address "nonexhaust" emissions from brake wear, tire wear, road wear, and suspension in air of road dust. Is this a problem? To what extent do nonexhaust emissions contribute to ambient concentrations of PM10 or PM2.5? In the near future, wear emissions may dominate the remaining traffic-related PM10 emissions in Europe, mostly due to the steep decrease in PM exhaust emissions. This underlines the need to determine the relevance of the wear emissions as a contribution to the existing ambient PM concentrations, and the need to assess the health risks related to wear particles, which has not yet received much attention. During a workshop in 2011, available knowledge was reported and evaluated so as to draw conclusions on the relevance of traffic-related wear emissions for air quality policy development. On the basis of available evidence, which is briefly presented in this paper, it was concluded that nonexhaust emissions and in particular suspension in air of road dust are major contributors to exceedances at street locations of the PM10 air quality standards in various European cities. Furthermore, wear-related PM emissions that contain high concentrations of metals may (despite their limited contribution to the mass of nonexhaust emissions) cause significant health risks for the population, especially those living near intensely trafficked locations. To quantify the existing health risks, targeted research is required on wear emissions, their dispersion in urban areas, population exposure, and its effects on health. Such information will be crucial for environmental policymakers as an input for discussions on the need to develop control strategies.