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Revisiting « L’État en action », one of its coauthors proposes a re-evaluation of its central research program and implications. In the context of a decline of the nation-state, is the relation between the central and the local symbolic construction of public order still critical ? Answering this question in the affirmative, the author finds that the very definition of public policies remains linked to their position in the public sphere, notably by way of various levels of government. Retracing their origins in the sociology of organizations, the article discusses the notions of forum, « référentiel », and discursive coalitions, resituating them a framework in which the role of ideas regains its full importance for the understanding of public policy.