Although the reform measures of the 1990s were based on the same productivist and meritocratic principles, they were undermined by the reluctance of the political authorities to set objectives for administrative units and public services. Setting challenging but credible objectives that can trigger significant improvements in the quality of services and efficient performance is a difficult task, requiring, upstream, an ability to elaborate and define the public policies for which the setting of objectives is an essential instrument, and a capacity for dialogue with the administrative units and their executives on the one hand and citizens/customers/users on the other. Without an adequate definition of the objectives, the whole reform mechanism will go nowhere, like an airplane that takes off without knowing where it is supposed to be headed.