/ Séminaire « Analyser l’action publique »
Ed Page : « Law and the Construction of Policy. A Comparative Analysis »
1er avril 2016, à 14h, en salle F-001 à l’ENS de Lyon (site Descartes)Présentation
“Like many other things, statutes are shaped by their environments. It is possible to show that a range of constitutional and institutional constraints produce characteristics shared by much legislation in one jurisdiction that distinguish it from much legislation in others. These characteristics include features such as the specificity of the language in which laws are written, how statutes delegate powers, the use of symbolism in legislation and the degree to which policy is developed in a cumulative manner. These features are not matters of “culture” or “style” but rather result from a) the role of statute in the wider legal-administrative system and b) the mode of production of legislation. This argument in this communication is developed on the basis of an analysis of 468 laws passed in 2014 in Germany, France, the UK, Sweden and the USA.”
Ed Page is Sidney and Beatrice Webb Professor of Public Policy at the LSE. He has had a long and distinguished career at the cutting edge of comparative politics and public policy. His recent research has centred on the study of bureaucracy and policy making in Britain and in comparative perspective. Recent publications have included work on accountability in the bureaucracy and civil service roles in the production of policy, especially in writing primary and secondary legislation. His book Politics without Politicians (Oxford University Press, 2012) offered a direct assessment of the role of bureaucrats in policy making by analysing how they shape policy in making decrees - laws that generally do not pass through full legislative scrutiny. Ed has also recently led a research collective with LSE undergraduate students which has published on policy making issues including special advisors, local government lawyers, interest groups, government researchers and academics in the media. Ed has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2001. From 1998- 2004 he was Director of the ESRC Research Programme on Future Governance : Lessons from Comparative Public Policy.