Youth policies in France: old trends and new tendencies.

The article analyses the main evolutions of French youth policies since their birth at the end of the 19th century, and does so from a threefold perspective: the players involved, the levels of decision making and the contents of the agenda setting. To reach these aims, the article is divided into three parts: the first part focuses on the progressive development of French youth policies from their conception to the middle of the ’90; the second section explores the growth of youth policies from the middle of the ’90 to the present; the last part discusses the current difficulties of French youth policies.