Two main analysis patterns stand out when it comes to analyzing public policies: the process model and the strategic model. This article aims to understand the process model through two major approaches identified by the French literature: the political sciences one, called public policies, and the public administration (management) one. At first, one sought to establish the origins and features of both approaches in France, ensued by a comparative use considering the following primary analytic categories: problems, processes and methods. Results revealed that both approaches present differences and similarities, as well as interdependences and interactions. One key difference is related to the normative and prescriptive character of the management, which is centered in "good practices". This last aspect is disputed by the political sciences approach, whose main representatives are scholars who worry particularly with the public action knowledge, not its intervention. Conclusion shows that the new public management principles imposed themselves on contemporary "public actions", which led to an increasing interaction between the two approaches
process model; public policies; political science; management
