Introduction to public action
This seminar, consisting of nine four-hour sessions, aims to give students an understanding of how careers in public affairs work in practice and the challenges and issues faced by those working in the field.
It consists of two distinct parts.
The first class is a presentation of the structure of public action in France and the levels of intervention by public authorities. Then, each week, the seminar welcomes a figure from the field of public affairs (ministerial advisor, director of a central administration or local authority, ambassador, director of an independent state agency, partner in a consulting firm, NGO manager, etc.) for a lecture. The guest speaker briefly reviews their career and discusses a specific public affairs issue before answering questions from students (e.g., developing a public policy for the Mediterranean in France; how to implement a census policy at INSEE; how to adapt the state to the digital challenge, etc.). To fuel the discussion, the speaker, in consultation with the seminar leader, chooses an academic or technical article that is sent to the students in advance to familiarise them with the topic.
Next, the students work in groups of two or three to write a report (15 pages) on a specific public policy issue. The choice of topic, which is left up to the students, is validated during the seminar. This work involves studying academic and administrative literature and conducting interviews with senior civil servants and stakeholders involved in the issue under study, in order to identify the context of the issue, possible solutions and scenarios for resolving it.
