L'« administration publique du Travail » comme objet de connaissance, perspectives pour l'histoire du ministère du Travail
Choosing to look at the “public administration of labour” rather than “admin-istered labour”, the author starts by analysing the components of the former which, more than an organic reality, can be defined as an institutional process developing over time. Without denying the importance of an inter-actionist approach, inscribing the history of the Ministry of Labour into a system of social relations, the author has opted to situate this latter in a history of the State, both as institution and as organisation: the State as actor, the State as social regulator. The concept of regulation in its different dimensions serves as a guideline to recompose, in three directions of research the elements earlier demonstrated. First of all the author researches the accumulation of texts which in the 19’th century already formed the bases for genuine industrial legislation. Accompanied by the introduction of still rudimentary structures, and embedded in “Commerce”, such legislation moved forward and spread wider with time, and with many policy shifts which must now be re-examined. Next is examined the central question of regulation, notably in its role of determining the shares – notably of statutes – to understand the trends in the 20’th century in line with different models. Lastly, labour policies are not homogeneous: it is usual to oppose the traditional legal intervention to “employ-ment policies” and even to professional training, while these last two issues are further demonstrated by the creation of direct intervention facilities. However, away from such dichotomy, from the French 5’th Republic the author tries to pinpoint certain “types” of labour policies whose respective features borrowed certain elements from each of the administrative groupings involved (Labour, Employment, Professional training). They offer a principle for under-standing the dynamics of the regulation mode during this latter period.
