After the intensive preparatory work of establishing budgetary categories and accounting norms, defining indicators, choosing new actors, information systems, and numerous other matters directly involving thousands of civil servants ; after the actual changeover of public management to the “LOLF (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances) mode”, the time has come to take perspective on medium-term changes in the administration – to put aside voluntarist and operational discourse and take a close look at the various concepts pertaining to the reforms, the precise content of the budgetary and administrative changes in question, and the link between the two. What appears is that technical concepts were widely tested in France in the context of the rationalisation of budgetary choices, or partake of a certain continuity, going hand in hand with progress in the domain of state reform are most specifically felt in the modernisation of public neo-liberal shrinking of the same. Finally, it is clear that the success of the LOLF will depend essentially on the involvement of society as a whole – civil servants and citizens alike.

C’est l’abstract de l’introduction de Michel Le Clainche, Trésorier-payeur général des Alpes Maritimes, coordonnateur pour ce thème dans la Revue Française d’Administration Publique « Réformes Budgétaires et réformes de l’Etat » en vente à la Documentation Française.