Alexis Spire

Dealing with Law in Migration Control The Powers of Street-level Bureaucrats at French Consulates

This article examines how street-level bureaucrats within migration control use their scope for discretionary powers. On the basis of two ethnographic studies of French consulates in Yaoundé and Tunis, we argue that state agents’ practices are significantly shaped by organizational constraints such as how decision-making processes are organized and the bureaucratic habitus, including the fear of fraud. Like other street-level bureaucrats, consular agents are able to draw on legal frameworks in a flexible and instrumental manner. Yet, in the field of migration policy, their scope for discretionary decision making is wider and influenced by their belief that they are acting to defend the national interest. This gives a more political dimension to the way such agents deal with law.

Capital, reproduction sociale et fabrique des inégalités

Résumé L’ouvrage de Thomas Piketty Le capital au XXIe siècle a le grand mérite de proposer une analyse globale des inégalités qui compare les pays et les périodes. La définition des classes sociales qu’il propose néglige néanmoins l’importance du capital culturel. De plus, le rôle des mouvements sociaux reste relativement marginal dans sa démonstration. Il privilégie l’outil fiscal sur toute autre forme de régulation. Ce livre très novateur ouvre toutefois d’importantes perspectives de recherches pour la sociologie politique.

The Institutionalization of Tax Revolt in France and the United States

The liberal wave that swept through western countries in the 1980s was preceded by anti-tax revolts on both sides of the Atlantic. This chapter compares how these mobilizations came into being in the United States and in France at the end of the 1970s. On the one side, the uprising for Proposition 13, which gave birth to the limiting of the property tax in California; on the other side, an upheaval of shopkeepers and craftsmen clashing head-on with French tax offices and their representatives. In the United States, the widespread mobilization against the payment of tax organized itself on a property basis, which enabled to gather every social class whereas in France the tax revolt expressed itself through the membership of people in the same trade. However, on both sides of the Atlantic, the high-ranking civil servants and the political elite cashed in on claims from humble background people to set up a consensus on a tax reduction for every social class.

Punishing tax offenders in France and Great Britain: two criminal policies

Purpose Since 2008-2009, the governments in France and Great Britain have encouraged more rigorous penalization of tax evaders. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of these policies on the basis of an important and original empirical material. Design/methodology/approach The study done in France relies on interviews conducted with representatives of law enforcement agencies on public statistics and on an innovative database compiled from nearly 600 cases submitted to the judiciary. The comparison with Great Britain is developed through interviews conducted with different participants in the fight against tax fraud and statistical information. Findings This paper describes the recent evolution of the machinery for screening tax-related wrongdoings in France and in the UK. It demonstrates that whilst publicly calling for harsh punishment against tax dodgers, in practice, both governments tend to seek a balance between the growing demand for tax equality and the belief that the State should not intervene in the economic realm. This strategy leads to the over-representation of certain categories of taxpayers. Despite the commonalities resulting from the numerous filters before prosecution, the penal strategy takes on two different shapes on either side of the Channel: whereas the British institutions support an “exemplary punitive” system, French regulatory system favours a “quasi-administrative” treatment. The French tax authority continues to use the criminal procedures mainly as a financial instrument for the improved restitution of stolen taxes. The policy of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, supported by the “Sentencing Guidelines”, aims much more at obtaining exemplary convictions. Originality/value Based on a large empirical material, this paper highlights the different outcomes of the criminal trials against tax evaders in the two countries.

Capital, Social Reproduction, and the Rise of Inequality

Abstract Thomas Piketty’s book has the great merit of implementing a global analysis of inequality that compares countries and periods. However, he adopts a definition of social class that overlooks the importance of cultural capital. Furthermore, the role of social movements is relatively marginalized in his account, which also focuses on fiscal tools to the detriment of other forms of regulation. Nonetheless, this innovative and important book opens up new avenues of research in the field of political sociology.

The Distinctive Features of Public Sector in Europe: A Comparative Study Based on the Social Morphology of Wage Earners

This article aims to point out that there are still substantial differences between public and private workers. Using the Eurostat Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, we define the public workers as those who are employed in Administration, Health and Education. The measure of targeted jobs is provided by the Labour Force Survey ( lfs) which is a large sample survey among private households. By following this approach, we can present several significant results. In every European country, public workers have an average aggregate employment tenure higher than private workers, a higher proportion of women and a higher proportion of high skilled workers. Beyond these global differences, we point out that the divide between public and private sector is differently shaped, according to the country and to the social status.