Politiques publiques, territoires et inégalités: les politiques régionales d'èducation en France et en Allemagne (1969 - 2004)

For the last 30 years, the territorial boundaries of European nation-states have been challenged. In order to study the changes in the building and structuring of their external and internal boundaries, the dissertation focuses on policies led and implemented by regional governments. Their impacts on territorial integration and on regional inequalities stand at its centre. Regional education policies in France and Germany are studied (1969-2004). To explain their impacts, several variables have been taken into account: the shape of political institutions (centralized, devolved and federal settings), tate intervention, the opposition of regional governments to state actors, party politics, the existence of institutions aimed at coordinating regional policies and interregional competition. The dissertation argues that regional policies can produce territorial integration and a decrease in regional inequalities. Attention is paid to actors’ mobilizations and to political entrepreneurs who intervene in the policy-making process. Mechanisms are built as a tool of middle-range theorizing.