Roles of accounting practice in a public setting: the case of the Parisian Great Exhibitions (1855-1900).

The five Universal Exhibitions held in Paris between 1855 and 1900 share the particularity of having been, unlike their British counterparts, financed first wholly, then in part, by the Government. Public financing led to public finance principles (budgetary and public accounting) being applied to the organisation of the Exhibitions. Along with these, the organisation in charge of running these events imported a set of well-formatted techniques. However, these techniques (budgeting and accounting technique) were part of a highly specific type of organisation that bore all the hallmarks of a project:  an Exhibition is characterised by strong notions of vision, intentionality and voluntarist action: it seeks to achieve objectives (of presentation/democratisation and dissemination) which require a certain number of specific activities to be set up, the results of which, subject to uncertainty or exogenous variables, must be measured both as preparations advance, and then again retrospectively, after the event.  an Exhibition is an event limited in time and space (it opens on a given date and for a length of time decided by the law (or decree) and its organisation is traditionally divided into four well-defined phases: preparation, realisation, exploitation and liquidation. The principles of public finance must therefore be adapted to a specific organisational environment and in particular, to the managerial constraints of the event. The system of accounting information is very much part of a process of organisational perception, governance and strategic mobilisation. The Universal Exhibitions provide an original field of investigation for examining the roles attributed to accounting within the framework of the organisation of such events. The originality here derives as much from the context (a project to be managed over a period of time and where no tool or project management model existed (Michaïlesco, 2007)) as from the public nature of the accounting technique used. Indeed, since knowledge of public accounting practice is incomplete, the study of organisation by the state would seem extremely interesting for the history of public finance (Thuillier, 1999). From this point of view, the Universal Exhibitions organised in Paris during the second half of the 19th century were organised under two different political regimes and within two distinct public finance frameworks. Changes in the regulations governing public finances had an impact on the powers bestowed on the organisations in charge putting on the Exhibitions. The accounting systems which were set up therefore had to be adapted to fit within the time limit. Moreover, public accounting was designed with the aim of controlling the collection of taxes and their use (Lemarchand, 1999), which is different from running an Exhibition, in particular if the event is seen in terms of project management. This change of objective modified the use of accounting systems and led to the emergence of specific roles that had to evolve as a result of both the accumulation of knowledge and the political context. The aim of this article is therefore to analyse the role of public accounting within the framework of the five Universal Exhibitions organised in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. The analysis was carried out using Burchell & al.âs classification system (1980). The latter distinguishes between four types of role assumed by accounting systems with reference to the characteristics of decision-making within an organisation. Indeed, decision-making is affected by adhesion to an objective and the uncertainty surrounding the consequences of the action taken. Depending on the degree of adhesion and uncertainty, decision-taking is described as âdecision by computationâ, âdecision by judgementâ, âdecision by compromiseâ, or âdecision by inspirationâ. The roles of accounting ascribed to these are as follows: âanswer machinesâ, âlearning machinesâ, âammunition machinesâ and ârationalization machinesâ. Two groups of Universal Exhibitions have been identified: those held under the Second Empire (the 1855 and 1867 Exhibitions) and those held under the 3rd Republic (the 1878, 1889 and 1900 Exhibitions). This division into two main periods allows us to take two important factors into account: on the one hand, the change of political regime that influenced the rules of public finance and on the other, the constitution of fairly general principles for the running of these events. The comparative study of these two groups of Exhibitions reveals that two distinct roles can be allotted to the accounting systems: a learning role during the Exhibitions of the first period, then a rationalization role in the case of the Exhibitions held during the second period. Under the Second Empire, the Universal Exhibitions financed exclusively by the Government were supported by strong political, economic and social aims. The importance given to holding such an event dispensed these projects from control by Parliament, whose influence had already been weakened considerably under Napoleon III. Although the decision to organise an Exhibition was unanimous, lack of knowledge on how to run such a project meant there was great uncertainty as to the consequences of decisions since the concept was new. Experience of running such a wide-ranging project therefore had to be acquired. An accounting system based on the rules and principles of public accounting and adapted to the events in question therefore met these needs. Within the framework of the Universal Exhibitions organised under the Second Empire, accounting may therefore be analysed as a learning instrument and aid to decision-making (learning machine). The arrival of the 3rd Republic and with it the return of strict parliamentary control, saw great controversy emerge as to the economic usefulness of Universal Exhibitions and the financial implication of the Government in their organisation. The difficulty in obtaining a consensus on how they should be run led to a process of retrospective justification in which accounting acquired considerable importance. Despite the financial disengagement of the Government, the principles of public finance were still applicable but had evolved as a result of changes in the political and economic environment. Experience acquired in the organisation of the preceding Exhibitions reduced the uncertainty inherent in evaluating the consequences of decisions taken. However, the need then arose to rationalize the existence of these events and the use of the private finances obtained. Budgetary procedures were strengthened and there was an overproduction of information in the shape of financial reporting and statistics. In this context, the accounting system, which had been adapted many times after the first Exhibitions as a result of changes in the environment, was then used to rationalize the action taken (rationalization machine). The documents used to carry out this study are of two different kinds. On the one hand, there are the various documents generated by the organization of the Exhibitions (correspondence, plans of the exhibition palaces, photographs, administrative and accounting documents etc.) that were presented to the national archives by the Ministry for Commerce between 1877 and 1910 (de Maurepas, 1998). In addition to these documents there are the official reports written by the general commissioners of the successive Exhibitions assessing the organisation of the events and the results (these reports are available in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs).finance publique; système d'information comptable; Rôles de la comptabilité;

To restore or not? A valuation of social and ecological functions of the Marais des Baux wetland in Southern France

The Marais des Baux wetland in southern France has for centuries been subject to drainage, almost causing its entire disappearance. With an increasing awareness of wetland ecosystem services, the extensive drainage is being questioned today. To guide policy-makers and landowners in their decision-making, we use a Choice Experiment to elicit the preferences of the general public for potential land use and activity changes in the Marais des Baux. These changes concern wetland restoration, the extent of tree hedges, recreational opportunities, mosquito control and biodiversity.

Absence of generalised employment instability in the French and British labour markets

This paper aims to enlighten the debate around the increase of instability in contemporary labour markets. Based on the case of France and the UK, we analyse the position in the national employment system of employees, from 30 to 55 years old, concerning their job stability. National employment systems are broken down into four stability regimes created from the stability variable we generate. This variable is calculated on the basis of the ratio of tenure in current job to total time spent in the labour market. Both descriptive statistics of the stability variable and probabilities for employees to joint one regime or another, show the absence of a generalised employment instability for this “central” work force.France; United-Kingdom; Employment system; Job stability;

La coopération décentralisée française face au "Consensus Post-Washington". L'exemple de l'initiative ART du Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement au Maroc

Depuis la fin des années 90 et la remise en cause des politiques néolibérales de développement, les institutions internationales ont davantage axé leurs stratégies sur le politique. Nous soutenons qu’un « Consensus Post-Washington » est entrain de s’ériger. L’alliance de la Réserve fédérale américaine, du Fonds Monétaire International et de la Banque Mondiale a vécu. De nouvelles forces apparaissent dans l’espace laissé vacant par la remise en cause de l’ajustement. Le Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement, fort de sa crédibilité en matière de développement humain a su mettre l’accent sur la participation des populations tout en reprenant un des fondamentaux du Consensus précédent : la décentralisation. De nouvelles stratégies sont mises en place, s’appuyant sur une « nouvelle » forme d’aide au développement : la coopération décentralisée. Cette forme de coopération suscite un intérêt grandissant de la part des Nations Unies et de la Banque Mondiale. Elle souffre néanmoins de carences importantes, et n’a pas encore fourni les preuves de son efficacité. Le programmes Gouvernance et Développement Local du PNUD, s’attachent à maximiser l’impact de cette forme de coopération et l’intègre dans une stratégie plus globale visant, in fine, la localisation des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement. Mais certaines limites demeurent, sans condamner pour autant, ces nouvelles stratégies. L’heure de la rationalisation de la coopération décentralisée a sonné. Since the late 90’s and the contesting of neo-liberal development politics, the international institutions tried to Groupe more their strategies on “politics”. We suggest that a “Post-Washington Consensus” is emerging. The alliance of the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank World ebbed away. New forces appear in the vacant space left by the questioning of the adjustment. The United Nation Development Program, known for human development approach, succeeded in stressing participation strategies, while preserving decentralization, one fundamental of the preceding consensus. New strategies based on a “new” form of development aid, decentralized cooperation, have been implemented. This form of cooperation arouses a growing interest from the United Nations and the World Bank. It suffers, nevertheless, from important deficiencies, and did not provide yet, the evidence of its effectiveness. The program GOvernance and Local Development (GOLD) of the UNDP attempts to maximize the impact of this form of cooperation and integrates it, in a whole strategy aiming, in fine, the localization of the Millennium Development Goals. But some limit remains without condemning these new strategies. The hour of the rationalization of decentralized cooperation has sounded. (Full text in french)

Cloning and sequence analysis of cDNAs encoding the cytosolic precursors of subunits GapA and GapB of chloroplast glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from pea and spinach

Chloroplast glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is composed of two different subunits, GapA and GapB. cDNA clones containing the entire coding sequences of the cytosolic precursors for GapA from pea and for GapB from pea and spinach have been identified, sequenced and the derived amino acid sequences have been compared to the corresponding sequences from tobacco, maize and mustard. These comparisons show that GapB differs from GapA in about 20% of its amino acid residues and by the presence of a flexible and negatively charged C-terminal extension, possibly responsible for the observed association of the enzyme with chloroplast envelopes in vitro. This C-terminal extension (29 or 30 residues) may be susceptible to proteolytic cleavage thereby leading to a conversion of chloroplast GAPDH isoenzyme I into isoenzyme II. Evolutionary rate comparisons at the amino acid sequence level show that chloroplast GapA and GapB evolve roughly two-fold slower than their cytosolic counterpart GapC. GapA and GapB transit peptides evolve about 10 times faster than the corresponding mature subunits. They are relatively long (68 and 83 residues for pea GapA and spinach GapB respectively) and share a similar amino acid framework with other chloroplast transit peptides

Key concepts and debates in the French VET system and labour market

The purpose of this overview is to elaborate upon the seven analytical dimensions suggested (education, qualification, competence, skills, work place, labour market, gouvernance and, if possible, to propose a tentative articulation between them to guide our thinking at this stage in the research project. But before exploring the various levels and categories of the common grid, it is necessary to emphasize the difference between English and French languages regarding a key word, qualification.Skills; Qualification; Certification; Knowledge; Labour market; French and english terminology

Pour une anthropologie symétrique entre "développeurs" et "développés"

International audienceWhen studying development projects, some anthropologists refuse to investigate symmetrically " developed " and " developers ", with the same weberian comprehensive postulate they claim for the populations they usually study. Analyzing two cases, this paper shows that this leads to non rigorous demonstration and biased interpretation. While they claim such a symmetric methodology, numbers of studies in French development anthropology tend to neglect the institutional frameworks of development projects and developers' concrete practices and representations. Important parts of what are concretely development projects, such as institutional configurations, practitioners' reflexivity, pro-jects as socio-technique processes, are thus left under analyzed, even if they give new light on the reality of development projects.Dans leurs analyses de projets de développement, certains anthropologues refusent le principe de symétrie consistant à interroger les " développeurs " avec la même posture compréhensive qu'ils accordent aux populations qu'ils étudient d'habitude. A partir de deux cas, cet article montre que cela aboutit à des démonstrations peu rigoureuses et des interprétations biaisées. Tout en affirmant un tel principe de symétrie, nombre de travaux français en anthropologie du développement tendent à négliger les dispositifs institutionnels et l'analyse des pratiques et des représentations des développeurs. Une telle omission laisse dans l'ombre des parts importantes de ce qui constitue l'intervention de développement (les configurations institutionnelles, la réflexivité des agents de développement, les projets comme dispositifs socio-techniques, etc.), dont l'analyse éclaire pourtant la réalité des interventions et de leurs effets

La fin des exonérations de TVA est-elle favorable aux pauvres ? Le cas du Niger

Afin de disposer des ressources publiques nécessaires à son développement, le Niger étudie la possibilité d'élargir l'assiette fiscale de la TVA aux biens exonérés et aux biens d'alimentations de base. Cette proposition a provoqué des oppositions violentes conduisant à poser la question des impacts sociaux de la fiscalité. Nous avons construit le premier modèle d'équilibre général calculable micro-macro de l'économie réelle du Niger, permettant d'analyser l'impact social et de mener une analyse distributive de différents systèmes de TVA : TVA pure, maintien des exonérations dans l'agriculture vivrière, système de TVA à taux multiples. Selon notre modèle, le maintien des exonérations de TVA dans l'agriculture associée à l'élargissement de l'assiette fiscale dans les autres secteurs permet de tenir compte des objectifs nationaux de lutte contre la pauvreté tout en augmentant les recettes de l'Etat. L'impact social net des exonérations dépend de la structure économique du secteur. Si l'objectif est la fin des exonérations, notre modèle montre qu'une application du taux unique conforme à la théorie favorise la croissance alors que l'introduction d'un taux réduit sur les biens d'agriculture vivrière permet d'alléger l'impact social de la fin des exonérations.Modèle d'équilibre général calculable;micro-simulation;Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée;exonérations;analyse distributive;Niger.