In looking at the increase in the rights recognized to users, this paper shows that the juridical construction of the user as a public service creditor is at the heart of successive reforms in public administration. Thus, we see a normalization characterized by a strengthening of users’ rights developing through time. For over a century, the constant use amplified with each reform of the figure of the user as creditor has driven administrative modernization policy. Today, through the related figures of the client and the citizen, the user as creditor concept allows for the reconciliation of rights and management, showing that the main issue at stake is the conceptualization and regulation of individual-state relations.