Violette Larrieu's thesis defense
Ms. Violette Larrieu defended her thesis "Externaliser la défense : entre " mimétisme marchand " et " souci de soi de l'État " . Les politiques de restauration et de maintenance aéronautique sous le quinquennat de Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012)" on Thursday December 3, 2020 at 2:30pm.
Abstract: This political science thesis focuses on outsourcing policies for armed forces support activities (catering, aeronautical maintenance) in France, under the five-year term of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012). This work shows that decisions to outsource illustrate the implementation of State reform and the desire of the actors in charge to rationalize their actions. As an instrument of public action, outsourcing meets with resistance from the personnel concerned, not only the military but also - and above all - the trade unions representing civilian staff, leading senior civil servants and politicians to seek compromises in the choice of managerial tools. Maintaining a
capacity to "do" is part of the logic of reorganizing the State, in order to "do things better". Our work is based on two case studies, armed forces catering and aircraft maintenance, and draws on 80 semi-structured interviews and a large corpus of primary sources. This thesis mobilizes the analysis of public policies, in order to grasp the development and implementation of the policies studied, notably through an approach based on the instruments of public action. Through the analysis of actors' practices and beliefs, our thesis takes a fresh look at "invisible" policies affecting support activities, little explored by academic literature. It also "demilitarizes" defense policies by highlighting
the role of trade unions, and demonstrates the contribution of public policy analysis to the study of defense policies, in particular in order to grasp the transformations of the State at work.
Keywords: outsourcing policy, defense policy, defense support activities, public policy ,State, rationalization.
