Visiting professor, European Political and Governance Studies Department
Current positions:
Exceptional Class Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po Toulouse, France
Vice-Rector for international relations, Sciences Po Toulouse, France
Course offered:
Mettre en œuvre les priorités nationales et européennes sur le terrain : perspectives comparées sur les administrations publiques nationales, régionales, méso-locales et locales au sein de l’UE.
Previous professional affiliations:
2000-2001: Seconded National Expert & Senior Lecturer, European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), Maastricht (NL).
2001-2003: Assistant Professor (with tenure), Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
Education:
1987-1990: Graduate from Sciences Po Paris, “Public Service Section”.
1991-1992: Master 1 in Political Science, “major de promotion” (valedictorian), Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
1992-1993: Research MA in Political Science, “major de promotion” (valedictorian), Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
1994-1998: PhD in Political Science, magna cum laude, Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne University.
Other professional activities:
President (2019-2025) of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA); co-founder & member of the Board of the European Network for Public Administration (ENPA); member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Executive Committee (UK); Member of the Board of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH), Brussels; Member of the College of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA); High-level expert for the European Commission capacity building projects in several Member States and accession countries; Member of the Board of the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA); member of the editorial boards of International Review of Administrative Sciences, Public Policy & administration (Sage), Public Performance & Management Review (Routledge), Revue française d’administration publique, Studia Politica, Rivista Italiana di Public Management (RIPM), Governance & Public Management Series (Palgrave); visiting professor at several universities across Europe and beyond.
Research interests:
Comparative Politics: models of European states in their various forms; national trajectories of “stateness”; regimes and comparative government of EU Member States; with a special focus on comparison of the relations between political masters, their political/policy advisors, the higher bureaucracy, and additional expertise in policymaking.
Comparative Public Administration: administrative cultures and administrative reforms; post-New Public Management and neo-Weberian bureaucracy; public sector re-organization & capacity building; attractiveness, talents’ detection, modern HRM in the Senior Civil Service; Public Service Motivation, ethics, and anti-corruption policies.
Institutions of the European Union: multi-level governing processes (EU, national, regional), especially power-games in the co-ordination of EU affairs between layers of government in the frame of growing Europeanization.
Recent publications:
- (with Marie Goransson and Thurid Hustedt, Eds.), Questioning the Reign of the Entourages. Ministerial cabinets, policy advisers, and collaborators of the Executive within the European Union, London, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2026.
- (with Marie Goransson and Hussein Kassim, Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Core Executive Coordination in Europe, London, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2025.
- “Chapter 30: Policy Advise Paradoxes in France: so many advisors, experts and courtesans speaking (un-)true to power in a vertical ‘republican monarchy’”. In G. Capano, J. Craft, & M. Howlett (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Policy Advisory Systems. London, Routledge, December 2025.
- “Macron’s Reform of the higher Civil Service: Transforming the ‘State Nobility’ into ‘can-do managers’?”, in Susan Collard (Ed.), Revolution Revisited: Emmanuel Macron and the Limits of Political Change in France, London, Routledge, 2025, p. 180-200.
- “France: Which Prospects of Hybridization for the Neo-Weberian State in the Homeland of the ‘State-in-majesty’?”. Special Issue on “Neo Weberian State: From Theory to Practice?”, Journal of Policy Studies, 39(3), 2024, p. 13-31.
- (with Rémi Lefebvre), “Comment réaliser des entretiens scientifiques avec des acteurs politiques et administratifs ? Entretien avec Matthieu Caron”, Politeia, n°43, 2023, p. 261-269.
- “Your country needs you! For a new policy of Public Service attractiveness targeting our next generations”, Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, Special Issue 2022, p. 52-69.
- “Déterminer et conduire la politique européenne de la France. Un modèle de symbiose du pouvoir présidentiel et du pouvoir administratif”, Revue française d’administration publique, n°181, 2022, p. 13-40.
- “Fusion institutionnelle”, in Manel Benzefara-Alilat, Danièle Lamarque, Gérald Orange (Eds.), Encyclopédie du management public, Paris, IGPDE, 2022, p. 340-244.
- “Coordination interinstitutionnelle (Centre of Government)”, in Manel Benzefara-Alilat, Danièle Lamarque, Gérald Orange (Eds.), Encyclopédie du management public, Paris, IGPDE, 2022, p. 217-220.
- “France: under the rule of a contested politico-administrative elite whose legitimacy erodes”, in Andreas Ladner, Fritz Sager, Alexander Bastianen (Eds.), Handbook on the Politics of Public Administration, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2022, p. 289-302.
- (with Eric Buge), “De quoi l’avènement si tardif de la déontologie gouvernementale en France est-il le nom?”, in Matthieu Caron, Jean-François Kerléo (Eds.), La déontologie gouvernementale, Paris, IFJD, 2022, p. 17-33.
- “L’entreprise Macron, une entreprise d’Etat. Réformer la haute fonction publique pour mieux la curialiser?”, in Bernard Dolez, Anne-Cécile Douillet, Julien Fretel, Rémi Lefebvre (Eds.), L’entreprise Macron à l’épreuve du pouvoir, Grenoble, PUG, 2022, p. 143-155.
- (with Gildas Tanguy) (Eds.), Prefects, governors & commissioners. Territorial representatives of the State in Europe, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
- (with Emmanuel Aubin, Jean-François Kerléo et Johanne Saison) (Eds.), Quelle déontologie pour les hauts fonctionnaires ? Enjeux, textes et perspectives, Paris, Institut francophone pour la Justice et la Démocratie, LGDJ, 2021.
- (with Marius Profiroiu, Călin Hintea, Laura Mina-Raiu) (Eds.), TAD 14. The disciplines and the study of Public Administration. Transatlantic perspectives, Bucarest, Editura Curtea Veche, 2021.
- ‘‘Les hauts fonctionnaires et le Prince dans la France d’aujourd’hui: Réflexions sur des ‘liaisons dangereuses’ à l’improbable déontologie’’, in Emmanuel Aubin, Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-François Kerléo, Johanne Saison (Eds.), Quelle déontologie pour les hauts fonctionnaires? Enjeux, textes et perspectives, Paris, Institut francophone pour la Justice et la Démocratie, LGDJ, 2021, p. 175-209.
- “Chapitre 2: Prise de décision’’, in Steve Jacob, Nathalie Schiffino (Eds.), Politiques publiques. Fondements et prospective pour l’analyse de l’action publique, Brussels, Bruylant, Collection des Traités de science politique, 2021, p. 117-194.
- “Public Administration in France: The Shadow and Light of a Revival”, in Geert Bouckaert, Werner Jann (Eds.), European Perspectives for Public Administration. The Way Forward, Louvain, Leuven University Press, 2020, p. 335-349.
- (with Edoardo Ongaro), “Preface to EPPA I Book”, in Geert Bouckaert, Werner Jann (Eds.), European Perspectives for Public Administration. The Way Forward, Louvain, Leuven University Press, 2020, p. 11-12.
- (with Céline Du Boys, Christophe Alaux, Khaled Saboune), “France and COVID-19: a Centralized and Bureaucratic Crisis Management vs Reactive Local Institutions” in Paul Joyce, Fabienne Maron, Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy (Eds.), Good Public Governance in a Global Pandemic, Brussels, IIAS Public Governance Series, 2020, p. 279-290.