50

This article is concerned with cooperation in the decision-making processes in territorial collectivities between elected officials and senior administrative managers. It shows the bureaucratic model on which administrations have been built to be in crisis today, and without other more efficient and more adapted models available to replace it. The “managerial” model derived from private enterprise has not fulfilled its promises. It has merely resulted in an increase in procedural logic and a loss of benchmarks regarding professions and values in the public service. Taking Weber’s theory as its starting-point, this article tries to show how Weber’s basic postulates no longer correspond to the present reality of public administrations. In a period characterized by a reduction in means due to the economic and financial crisis, by the complexity and multiplicity of interests and needs, and by mistrust and a loss of confidence in elected officials, the relations between citizens, elected officials, and administration must evolve towards other forms of organization as well as more democratic and efficient decision-making processes. Decentralization, and the reforms that go with it, will not succeed without introducing profound changes in the modes of participation and regulation between elected officials, the administration, and citizens.