Abstract
The topic of this dissertation in political science is the outsourcing policies of the army’s support (catering, aircraft maintenance) in France during Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year mandate (2007-2012). This study demonstrates that outsourcing decisions illustrate the implementation of the State reform and the willingness of those in charge to rationalize their actions. As a public action instrument, outsourcing brings about resistance from the people targeted, whether the armies or – especially – the civilian personnel’s trade unions, which brings high-ranking officials and political figures to seek compromises on the choice of management instruments. This maintaining of a “doing” capability falls within the transformation of the State, seeking to “having done” in a better way. Our research shows two case studies, catering for the armed forces and aircraft maintenance, and draws on 80 semi-leading interviews and a large corpus of primary sources. This dissertation analyses public policies in order to understand the process making and the implementation of the policies being studied, based on the study of the instruments of public action. Through the analysis of the practices and beliefs of those in charge of the Defense outsourcing policies during Nicolas Sarkozy’s mandate (2007-2012), our research highlights “invisible” Defense support policies, too often forgotten by the academic field. To that extent, we seek to “demilitarize” Defense policies by highlighting the importance of the trade unions and the input of public policy analysis to better understand these Defense policies, in particular in order to see the transformations of the State in action.