Restructuring Bureaucratic Organizations

Abstract

The assessment of the impact of the political leadership on the organization of French regional planning starts with the conception of the policy and the administrative arrangements to deliver it. Blondel thinks political leaders are likely to have to improve the organizational structure if they are to achieve the outcomes they desire, but he is sceptical about their chances of doing so. ‘Leaders are not powerless to move the machinery and the structures, but the extent of their power is … often overestimated’ (Blondel 1987: 172–C3). Blondel’s analysis suggests that setting up a bureaucracy for an innovative or ambitious policy — and French regional planning was both — would meet special difficulty. ‘Leaders who wish to achieve goals that are appreciably more “activist” than those of their predecessors often wish to do more; … they can try and bend the “muscles” of the bureaucracy; but their expectations will remain largely unfulfilled’ (Blondel 1987: 170).