Des chiffres de la politique à la politique du chiffre Le cas des réformes du financement de la recherche dans les universités belge francophones.

“Governing by numbers” is a trend on the increase in public action. Numbers tend to pervade the politico-administrative space without questioning neither the quantification processes which produce them nor the conditions of their utilization in government. And yet the use of numbers and data in political arguments contribute to transform the terms of the debate: politics can transform data and indicators, but one should not neglect how numbers affect policymaking. This article proposes as case study the analysis of some recent transformations of public research funding mechanism in universities in French speaking Belgium. It questions the systemic effects of the use of performance indicators in public management in this sector and it proposes some starting points for a discussion of their impact on the quality of the political debate.