Created in 1967, affiliated to the CNRS since its inception, CERSA has the status of a mixed research unit (MRU 7106), under section 36 ("Law, standards, regulations") and section 40 ("Politics, power, organisation") of the CNRS.
The study of administrative practices on which its own scientific identity depends, is construed within a broad perspective, incorporating varied approaches, (legal, historical, sociological...) and constitutes a point of entry to more general knowledge of social and political reality.
For the period 2014-2018, CERSA is centring its investigations on an analysis of "The development of States and the transformation of forms of public action". The research programme is divided along 4 main axes: