La notion de deconcentration en droit administratif francais

• Auteur / Autrice : NESSRDINE BENMAGHNIA
• Direction : JEAN ARNAUD MAZERES
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Droit public
• Date : Soutenance en 1996
• Etablissement(s) : Toulouse 1

Résumé

Face a la "prestigieuse" decentralisation, paree de toutes vertus et apparaissant comme la reforme-symbole de modernisation de la gestion publique ou encore comme le remede au dysfonctionnement de la democratie representative par la garantie d'un equilibre entre l'autorite publique et la defense des libertes individuelles, la deconcentration fait figure de parent pauvre dans la mesure ou il n'existe aucune veritable doctrine d'emploi de la deconcentration et ce, malgre l'existence d'une forte solidarite entre ces deux notions qui, bien que distinctes operent en couple pour le meme service de l'interet public. Cependant, aujourd'hui en raison d'une situation economique et sociale tres preoccupante (sentiment d'insecurite, chomage galopant, desertification rurale, urbanisation desordonnee. . . ), l'administration francaise n'a peutetre jamais ete autant tournee vers le local et la deconcentration, meme si elle n'est pas vraiment connue de l'opinion, fait partie de ce vaste mouvement en devenant un element essentiel et autonome. La loi du 6 fevrier 1992, en l'occurrence, l'affirme en posant le principe comme l'outil de la reforme de l'etat. Elle preconise, en effet, la reorganisation de l'administration centrale afin de lui permettre d'assurer sa fonction de conception strategique, de controle et d'expertise, et la revitalisation de l'administration deconcentree dans une optique d'interministerialite. Y parviendra-t-elle? la charte de deconcentration, par sa seule existence, engage a repondre positivement mais la reforme, elle, ne peut reussir que si le pouvoir politique d'une part, la technostructure d'etat d'autre part, accomplissent, chacun en ce qui les concerne une evolution voire une revolution.

Beside the far more prestigious notion of decentralisation, to which every virtue is attributed and which is perceived as a flagship reform symbolising the modernisation of public administration, or again as the cureall for every malfunction of representative democracy, through the balance it should achieve between public authority and the protection of individual liberties, devolution cuts a lowly figure in the sense that there is no true doctrine as to the use to be made of it - despite the firm solidarity linking the two concepts, which, though distinct, work together to fulfil the same functions in the public interest. Nevertheless, due to the current highly preoccupying economic and social context (the feeling of insecurity, runaway unemployment, rural depopulation, badly organised town planning, etc. ), the french authorities are turning perhaps more than ever to local administration, in which devolution, though little known as a concept to the public, is playing a more and more essential and autonomous part in the overall process. The law of the 6th february 1992 in effect confirms this, by establishing the principle of devolution as a tool in the reforms undertaken by the government. This law advocates the reorganisation of the central authorities to enable them to fulfil their function in terms of strategic planning, supervision and expert appraisal, and to revitalise devolved authority with the ultimate aim of achieving interministerial administration. The question is whether this can be accomplished. The devolution charter, through its very existence, indicates that the answer must be positive, but the reform itself can only succeed if the political powers on the one hand and the technostructure of the government on the other hand are able to bring about possibly radical change within - their own scope of activity.