For more than ten years, La Fabrique de la Cité has been carrying out forward-looking reflection work aimed at responding to the major urban challenges of this century. With each publication, we have taken it to heart to consider the eminent role of cities, corporations and the civil society in solving the complex problems that are before us, while formulating proposals to develop their capacity to act. So why is La Fabrique de la Cité proposing to open up a reflection on the role of the State in meeting the challenges of the low carbon transition of mobility?
The main reason is that there is no consensus that the ecological transition will not be easy path. Meeting the climate challenges requires imagining new strategies for public action. In this context, some call for “State is back” without however succeeding in clarifying the latter’s position. So how to move forward? In my opinion, the reflections carried by the current of American institutionalism are a useful resource for moving forward.
It is in this perspective that we have proposed to move forward in two stages to design a new age of the State that we are calling for: first, we have put forward the idea of a ‘State catalyst of transition’. Knowing that a catalyst is defined in chemistry as a substance that increases the rate of a reaction without appearing to participate in it, the ‘State as a catalyst of transition’ aims to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society without substitute for all the actors who must take their share of responsibility (firms, local authorities, citizens). These clarifications make it possible to avoid potential misunderstandings: in our conception, the return of the State does not fit into the traditional conceptions of centralism or socialism. Our next release will focus on the social aspects by working on the welfare state.
