Biography

Thomas Lépinay holds a Ph.D. in political science (Université Paris-1 Panthéon Sorbonne, 2020). His research interests include history and sociology of public finances, sociology of institutions and sociology of interactions between political and administrative elites. His dissertation is a history and a sociology of the Cour des comptes (Court of Auditors), the French supreme audit institution and a grand corps de l’État, whose members are part of the national administrative elite. The peculiar trajectory of the Court of Auditors, since the 1980s, reflects institutional changes within the French state, related to the emergence of new public management and the transformation of fiscal surveillance.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Thomas intends to start a new project about fiscal surveillance and budgetary processes in Europe, particularly in France and in Italy, in order to understand the dynamics of Europeanization and the national fiscal trajectories since the Euro-crisis. His research will focus on the interactions between governments, European Commission and independent fiscal institutions in budgetary processes.

Expertise for Teaching and Mentoring of Ph.D. Researchers
Thomas has served as a teaching assistant for courses on political and administrative institutions (postgraduate classes, Université Versailles-Saint-Quentin), sociology of state, state organisation and public policies, and political sociology (undergraduate classes, Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne).