One Policy for Two Problems: The Controversy Surrounding the Parisian Tramway

摘要

The debate about the installation of a tramway in Paris stretched out over a decade. Two rival projects were put forward, each one focusing on a different aspect of the problem: town planning on the one hand, transport on the other. The present article looks at the decision-making process, and the accompanying techno-political controversies. This form of analysis makes it possible to understand the different actors' viewpoints, and to make sense of their "policy statements". Our primary concern is to show how the decision-making process in question depended on the different protagonists' ability to provide convincing arguments, transforming the tramway issue into a problem solving exercise.