Violette Larrieu's Thesis Defense
Ms. Violette Larrieu defended her dissertation, titled “Outsourcing Defense: Between ‘Market Mimicry’ and ‘State Self-Interest’: Aviation Repair and Maintenance Policies During Nicolas Sarkozy’s Five-Year Term (2007–2012),” on Thursday, December 3, 2020, at 2:30 p.m.
Abstract: This political science dissertation focuses on policies regarding the outsourcing of support activities for the armed forces (catering, aircraft maintenance) in France during Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term (2007–2012). This study shows that decisions to outsource reflect the implementation of government reform and the desire of the actors responsible for it to streamline their operations. As an instrument of public policy, outsourcing provokes resistance from the affected personnel—including military personnel but also, and above all, the labor unions representing civilian staff—leading senior civil servants and political actors to seek compromises in their choice of managerial tools. This preservation of an “
” capacity to “do” is part of a broader strategy to restructure the state so that it can more effectively “enable others to do.” Our study presents two case studies—the restructuring of the armed forces and the maintenance of aviation equipment—and is based on 80 semi-structured interviews and a broad corpus of primary sources. This dissertation employs public policy analysis to understand the development and implementation of the policies under study, particularly through an approach focused on instruments of public action. By analyzing the practices and beliefs of the actors involved, our dissertation offers a fresh perspective on “invisible” policies related to support activities, which have been little explored in the academic literature. It thus helps to “demilitarize” defense policies by highligh
ly the role of labor unions and demonstrates the contribution of public policy analysis to the study of defense policies, particularly in order to understand the transformations of the state currently underway.
Keywords: outsourcing policy, defense policy, defense support activities, public policy, government, streamlining.
