Public organizations, stakeholders and the construction of publicness. Claims and defence of authority in public action

This article seeks to highlight the conditions in which organizations with different levels of ‘publicness’ interact in the framework of policy‐making. In France, decision making and implementation is shared among public, semi‐public and private organizations. The specific responsibility and influence of public organizations within institutional collective action however is a source of ambiguity. It becomes therefore a matter of political authority for public organizations to invest in the structuring of public problems and policies. The case analysed here shows that the publicness of implemented policies is a construction which stakeholders may try to influence. Responses by public organizations show that publicness does not only relate to the plurality of organizational forms but also to the existence of a form of hierarchy within systems of governance themselves.