Le sens de la mesure. La gestion par les indicateurs est-elle gage d'efficacité ?. How Much is Enough? Does Indicator-Based Management Guarantee Effectiveness?

Indicator-based policy steering is staunchly embedded in an underlying technical approach and a management philosophy that draws on a simplified vision of the organisational relationships between policy designers, users, advisors and overseers. This governance model grounded in the principle of accountability raises two questions. First, as regards its efficiency ? its capacity to improve productivity in terms of outputs. Second, as regards its contribution to the effectiveness of public policies ? or in other words, its ability to produce the outcomes (final objectives) targeted by these policies and which are often linked to social wellbeing or economic growth. After examining the place that indicators now hold in public sector decision-making and identifying their properties, virtues and perverse effects, the article goes on to analyse their performance in terms of the efficiency of public organisations and the effectiveness of public policy. It concludes by listing the conditions for an appropriate use of indicators in public sector management and decision-making.