59

The increasing interest in impact assessment procedure in France highlights the tensions between the traditional conceptions of administrative law and the contemporary trends. The public service expertise and its isolation from day-to-day political matters traditionally aims to protect the French republican approach of general interest facing partisan and short view pressures from political players. While confidence in public service is constantly decreasing, the State faces, on one hand, a growing aspiration to more openness and public participation and, on the other hand, an increased demand for systematic and objective justification of public work. Further developments are not clearly defined but all the conditions are gathered to shore up recent reforms. This confirms the increase on applying impact assessment to public policy-making.