¹ Debbasch, Charles, L'Administration au pouvoir: jonctionnaires et politiques dans la V^e Republique (Paris 1969Google Scholar), 9. All translations from the French are my own.

² Although this thesis is implicit in much of the scholarly work on the French administration. See below, pp.132S.

³ It would be impossible to list all the publications that have recently appeared bearing on these themes. The following is, therefore, only a partial list. (Other titles are mentioned below.) Elgozy, Georges, Le Paradoxe des technocrats (Paris 1966Google Scholar); Moulin, Club Jean, L'Etat et le citoyen (Paris 1961Google Scholar); Pisani, Edgard, La Region . . . pour quoi jaire? ou le triomphe des jacondins (Paris 1969Google Scholar); Bernard, Philippe, La France au sin-gulier (Paris 1968Google Scholar); Cheverny, Julian, Les cadres (Paris 1967Google Scholar); Gelinier, Octave, Le Secret des structures competitives (Paris 1966Google Scholar); Bauchard, Philippe, Les Technocrates et le pouvoir (Paris 1966Google Scholar); Meynaud, Jean, La Technocratic: tnythe ou realite? (Paris 1964Google Scholar). It is especially interesting to note that at a time when the French are beginning seriously to question their own administrative methods and training system, other countries are coming to regard the French system as worthy of emulation. See, for example, Brian Chapman's British Government Observed: Some European Reflections (London 1963).

⁴ Lanza, Albert, Les Projets de reforme administrative en France de 1919 à nos jours (Paris 1968), 160Google Scholar.

⁵ L'Express, 29 September-5 October 1962, 62. See also Le Monde, 10 January 1970, and Michel Boyer, “M. Albin Chalandon s'en prend au corps des ponts et chaussées,” Le Monde, 12 May 1970.

⁶ Le Monde, 9-10 February 1969.

⁷ General Charles de Gaulle, Speech at E.N.A., in Promotions, No. 52, 1962, 11.

⁸ Michel Debré, “Naissance et perspectives d'une institution,” Promotions, No. 35, i955> 27.

⁹ Le Monde, 26 September 1969.

¹⁰ Lanza, Les Projets de réforme administrative en France, 100.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Isay, Raymond, “Grands Corps et Grands Commis—Introduction,” Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 June 1958Google Scholar, 633.

¹³ See Grégoire, Roger, La Fonction publique (Paris 1946Google Scholar). For the conditions prevailing prior to the reform, see Sharp, Walter Rice, The French Civil Service: Bureaucracy in Transition (New York 1931Google Scholar).

¹⁴ For the philosophy underlying this reform, see Debré, Michel, Réforme de la Fonction publique (Paris 1946Google Scholar).

¹⁵ See Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires, Assemblée Nationale, October 5, 1946. It should be noted that the Statut was promulgated by law, whereas the nationalization of die Ecole libre des sciences politiques in Paris, its transformation into the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, the creation of other Instituts d'Etudes Politiques in the provinces, and the creation of E.N.A. were promulgated by Decree.

¹⁶ See Earle, Edward Mead, ed., Modern France: Problems of the Third and Fourth Republics (Princeton 1951Google Scholar).

¹⁷ One of the early articles that generated some interest at the time of its publication was Charles Brindillac's “Les hauts fonctionnaires,” Esprit, vi (June 1953). Similar studies followed a few years later. See the series of articles that appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes: Roland Maspetiol, “Grands Corps et Grands Commis: 1. Le Conseil d'Etat,” June 15, 1958; Wladimir D'Ormesson, “Grands Corps et Grands Commis: n. La Carriere diplomatique,” July 1, 1958; Henri Deroy, “Grand Corps et Grands Commis: in. L'Inspection des Finances,” August 1, 1958; Paul Loppin, “Grands Corps et Grands Commis: iv. La Magistrature,” September 1, 1958; Pierre Escoube, “Grands Corps et Grands Commis: v. La Cour des Comptes,” October 1, 1958. One has to add that the articles in this series are characterized by a glaring, and at times embarrassing, complacency. This is no doubt partly because each article on a corps is written by a member of that corps. See also Paul Bouteiller, “Les administrations centrales de l'Etat et les réformes de 1945,” Promotions, LIII (1960); Papon, Maurice, “La Haute administration de l'Etat,” Revue de la Defense Nationale, xiv (November 1958Google Scholar); and La-lumière, Pierre, L'Inspection des Finances (Paris 1959Google Scholar).

¹⁸ Ridley, F. and Blondel, J., Public Administration In France (New York 1965), 54Google Scholar.

¹⁹ See his Réforme de la fonction publique and his Au service de la nation (Paris 1963) 250Google Scholar–56.

²⁰ Thorez, Maurice, Le Statut général des fonctionnaires (ParisGoogle Scholar n.d.). This pamphlet was published at about the same time as Debré's Réforme de la fonction publique.

²¹ See Elgey, Georgette, La République des illusions (Paris 1965), 31–35Google Scholar.

²² Williams, Philip M., Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic (New York 1966) 465Google Scholar–96.

²³ (Paris 1959.)

²⁴ For some of the effects of appointing technicians as ministers, see Chenot, Bernard, Etre Ministre (Paris 1967), 22–25Google Scholar. A distinction needs to be made between those who, like Chalandon, Chirac, and Guena, were first elected to Parliament before becoming ministers and those who, like Chenot, Couve de Murville, and Ortoli, came to occupy ministerial posts without first being elected to Parliament. The former are continuing a venerable tradition that began with the Third Republic. Th e latter represent an innovation of the Fifth Republic.

²⁵ See Vedel, Georges, ed., La Dépolitisation, mythe ou réalité (Paris 1962Google Scholar).

²⁶ See Avril, Pierre, Le Gouvernement de la France (Paris 1969), 139Google Scholar–54; Charles Debbasch, 25–101; Elgozy, Georges, Lettre ouverte à un jeune technocrate (Paris 1968Google Scholar).

²⁷ François Mitterand, though accusing the civil servants of usurping power under the Fourth Republic, nevertheless writes that the “technocrats” have known “their finest hour” under the Fifth Republic. See his Le Coup d'etat permanent (Paris 1965), 144Google Scholar. See also Roger Priouret, “Face à face avec Faure, Edgar, “L'Expansion, xxii (September 1969Google Scholar). In this interview, Edgar Faure applies Galbraith's thesis of The New Industrial State to French society. Galbraith's “technostructure” is composed in France, says Faure, of a small network of civil servants wh o constitute the real decision-makers. For an elaboration of this, see Faure's L'Ame du combat (Paris 1970), 54–60Google Scholar.

²⁸ Luethy, Herbert, France Against Herself (New York 1953), 40Google Scholar. See also Alfred Diamant, “The French Administrative System,” in Siffin, W. J., ed., Toward The Comparative Study of Public Administrations (Bloomington 1959Google Scholar) and Williams, Crisis and Compromise, 365.

²⁹ (Paris 1947–1954).

³⁰ (Cambridge 1966).

³¹ The Right Wing in France from 1815 to De Gaulle (Philadelphia 1966), 84Google Scholar.

³² Although this needs to be more fully documented, there are indications that such changes may in fact have occurred. In examining a number of personnel dossiers of civil servants who served under the Third Republic in the Archives Nationales in Paris, I gained the impression that, in certain ministries and at certain periods at least, turnover in personnel was a function of the turnover in ministers and governments. Also, Richardson's study shows the changes experienced by the prefectoral corps under the various governments of the Restoration. See pp. 208–10. True, the prefectoral corps has always been more susceptible to purges than other corps. But how much more?

³³ (Paris 1939).

³⁴ La, Stabilité des ministres sous la Troisième République, 1879–1940 (Paris 1962Google Scholar).

³⁵ In my study of the French bureaucracy I have attempted to deal with this question and I have suggested that the influence of the bureaucracy is only incidentally, if at all, linked to the role of Parliament and to the degree of ministerial stability.

³⁶ See Ardagh, John, The New French Revolution (New York 1969Google Scholar).

³⁷ See the essays by John Christopher, John E. Sawyer, and David S. Landes, in Earle, Modern France.

³⁸ Birnbaum, Norman, The Crisis of Industrial Society (New York 1969), 29Google Scholar.

³⁹ See Luethy; André Siegfried, France: A Study of Nationality (New Haven 1930Google Scholar); Fauvet, Jacques, La France déchirée (Paris 1957Google Scholar); Hoffmann, Stanley, “Paradoxes of the French Political Community,” in Hoffmann and others, In Search of France (Cambridge, Mass. 1963Google Scholar).

⁴⁰ Guttsman, W. L., The British Political Elite (New York 1963), 39Google Scholar.

⁴¹ In no way do I imply here that the only alternative to decentralization is the transfer of powers from the state to the private sector, which is clearly Chalandon's view of things. I merely wish to point to certain forces in French society that encourage the process of centralization. As Pierre Gremion and Jean-Pierre Worms have pointed out, the alternative to excessive centralization need not be the liberal state, which is liable to have disastrous consequences for France. See their article, “L'Etat et les collectivités locales,” in Esprit, Special Number, January 1970, 20–35. For Chalandon's views, see his article, “Comment je conçois le rôle de l'Etat,” Preuves, 11 (1970). See also his exchange with Michel Rocard in L'Expansion, xxviii (March 1970).

⁴² (New York 1963.) The referendum of April, 1969, was far more than a vote to decide the French people's confidence in De Gaulle. For the various issues at stake, see Hayward, J.E.S., “Presidential Suicide by Plebiscite: De Gaulle's Exit, April 1969,” Parliamentary Affairs, xxii (Autumn 1969), 289–319Google Scholar. See also Williams, Philip M., French Politicians and Elections, 1951–1969 (Cambridge 1970), 282Google Scholar–89.

⁴³ Chapman, British Government Observed: Some European Reflections, 17.

⁴⁴ Stanley Hoffmann, “Heroic Leadership: The Case of Modern France,” in Edinger, Lewis J., Political Leadership In Industrialized Societies (New York 1967), 108Google Scholar–54.

⁴⁵ A number of higher civil servants in France remarked to me that they were scarcely able to recognize their institutions through M. Belorgey's analysis.

⁴⁶ Belorgey, a graduate of E.N.A., is now a sub-Prefect. Until a few months ago he was Directeur de Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Economy and Finance.

⁴⁷ Catherine, author of numerous studies on the French administration, is Editor in Chief of La Revue Administrative. Thuiller is a higher civil servant and a member of the Cour des Comptes.

⁴⁸ See the statement by the Editor of the series, Professor Roland Drago, that appears in all the volumes in the series.

⁴⁹ For such an approach, see Crozier, Michel, Petits jonctionnaires au travail (Paris 1955Google Scholar).

⁵⁰ Ridely, F. and Blondel, J., Public Administration in France (London, second edition, 1969Google Scholar), x.

⁵¹ See also Kesler's article, “Les anciens élèves de l'E.N.A.,” Revue Française des sciences politiques, xiv (April 1964Google Scholar).

⁵² An attempt to fill this gap has been undertaken by the Centre de Sociologie Euro-péenne, which is sponsoring a large-scale study on the French administration. See the first volume of the project, Darbel, Alain and Schnapper, Dominique, Les Agents du système administratif (Paris 1969Google Scholar).

⁵³ (Paris 1961.)

⁵⁴ Because the thesis of this book is that the single most important factor accounting for academic success is social origin, it became a bible for the revolutionary students during the May, 1968, uprising. See also the authors' recently published La Reproduction (Paris 1970Google Scholar).

⁵⁵ Rustow, Dankwart A., “The Study of Elites: Who's Who, When, and How,” World Politics, xviii (July 1966), 699Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Ibid., 701.

⁵⁷ One question that I examined in greater detail in the course of my study is why ministers only rarely take into their cabinet members of the corps that the Ministry is identified with. An exception to this is the Ministry of Finance, where the corps of the Inspection des Finances is thoroughly represented in the administrative posts proper and in the minister's cabinet.

⁵⁸ Already in die early years of the Third Republic, the cabinets were known as les pieuvres (the octopi) and as la plaie de la troisième République (the ulcer of the Third Republic). See Chardon, Henri, L'Administration de la France: les fonctionnaires (Paris 1908), 129Google Scholar. See also Robert de Jouvenel, La République des camarades (Paris 1914) 104–113Google Scholar. For criticism of the cabinets under the Fourth Republic, see Massigli, René, Sur quelques maladies de l'Etat (Paris 1958) 40–55Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Mannheim, Karl, Ideology and Utopia (New York 1936), 118Google Scholar–23.

⁶⁰ Mme. Siwek-Pouydesseau seeks to justify her method in the conclusion of her book by stating mat “As for the relationship between cabinets and Directors, they cannot be understood or appreciated unless one takes account of the background of the two groups” (p. 129). That this is a specious and misguided approach has already been seen. This same method, though to a slightly lesser degree, is employed in Siwek-Pouydes-seau's Le Corps préfectoral sous la III^e et IV^e République (Paris 1969Google Scholar).

⁶¹ Les Cabinets ministériels et leur évolution (Thèse pour le doctoral de Recherche, Fondation nationale des Sciences politiques, Paris 1962); and Les Directeurs des administrations centrales (D.E.S., Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Economiques, Paris 1963).

⁶² Gournay, B., Kesler, J.-F., and Siwek-Pouydesseau, J., Administrations Publiques (Paris 1967Google Scholar). See particularly the section by Siwek-Pouydesseau.

⁶³ For one formulation of this mistaken belief see Merritt, Richard L., “Interviewing French and West German Elites,” in Deutsch, Karl and others, France, Germany and the Western Alliance (New York 1967Google Scholar) 9. For a more recent echo of this misconception, see Bernard Brown, E., “Elite Attitudes and Political Legitimacy in France,” The Journal of Politics, xxxi (May 1969), 420CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁴ It is certainly possible, as the methodological window-dressing indicates, that Mme. Kessler, like Mme. Siwek-Pouydesseau, had aspired to follow a path other than those previously traced out for such studies but may have been hindered by her training. Both Le Conseil d'Etat and Le Personnel de direction des ministères were originally written as theses in the Faculties of Law and Political Science and were undoubtedly circumscribed by the standards and methods expected of such works.

⁶⁵ Quoted in Debbasch, L'Administration au pouvoir, 65–66. The détachement of the members of the Conseil d'Etat receives a strictly juridical treatment in Mme. Kessler's study (pp. 166–74). Yet the practice of détachement constitutes one of the most crucial aspects of the functioning of the French administrative system. At any given time, approximately one-third of the members of the Conseil d'Etat and two-thirds of the members of the Inspection des Finances are détachés. Because the Grands Corps are seen as springboards to the most brilliant administrative careers, many civil servants render little or no service to their corps throughout their career. Yet unless they resign from the civil service, they retain their rank within the corps, which attaches to them much like a title for the remainder of their careers. The role of the Grand Corps in the French state is currently being studied by the author.

⁶⁸ See Harrison, C. J., Executive Discretion and Judicial Control (London 1954Google Scholar), Freedman, C., The Conseil d'Etat in Modern France (New York 1961Google Scholar), and Negrin, J.-P., The Conseil d'Etat et la vie publique en France depuis 1958 (Paris 1968Google Scholar).

⁶⁷ Bertrand, A. and Long, M., “L'Enseignement supérieur des sciences administratives en France,” in Revue Internationale des Sciences Administratives, I (1960), 9Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Vedel, Traité, 5. Empirical political studies in France have never gone much beyond electoral analysis.

⁶⁹ (Chicago 1964.)

⁷⁰ Touraine, Alain, “Le Rationalisme libéral de Michel Crozier,” Sociologie du Travail, vi (April-June 1964), 188CrossRefGoogle Scholar–97. See Crozier's rejoinder to this attack, “Le Volontarisme d'Alain Touraine,” Sociologie du Travail, vi (July-September 1964), 301–305.

⁷¹ See Mandrin, Jacques, L'Enarchie ou les mandrins de la société bourgeoise (Paris 1967Google Scholar), and Mendès-France, Pierre, “La République des jeunes messieurs,” Courrier de la République, xxxiv (Nov. 1965Google Scholar).

⁷² Mandrin, 151.

⁷³ Georges Elgozy uses the administration as a vehicle for trying out his literary talents. See his Le Paradoxe des technocrates (Paris 1966Google Scholar) and Lettre ouverte à un jeune technocrate (Paris 1968Google Scholar). These works are studded with literary allusions, but they do no more than compound the popular image of Courteline's rond-de-cuir. Unlike Balzac or Stendhal, Elgozy is more concerned with his own literary references than with using his talents to describe a particular world. In the same vein, though somewhat less irritating, are the two books by Pasteur, Paul, La Dictature des ronds-de-cuir (Vichy 1965Google Scholar) and Chinoiseries des mandrins (Vichy 1968Google Scholar).

⁷⁴ (Paris 1968.)

⁷⁵ As we shall see below, the empirical information available on the French administration is derived almost solely from studies on local administration.

⁷⁶ (Paris 1968.)

⁷⁷ See Monthen, Jean, “Un château-fort médiéval: le ministère de l'Economie et des Finances,” Esprit, Special Number (January 1970), 140Google Scholar–54.

⁷⁸ See the transcript of the important interview of François Bloch-Lainé with Albert du Roy, Europe No. 1, Europe-Soir, December 27, 1968, 2.

⁷⁹ Pour Nationaliser l'Etat, ii.

⁸⁰ See also the Club Jean Moulin's, Les Citoyens au pouvoir (Paris 1968Google Scholar), and Michel Crozier's recently published La Société bloquée (Paris 1970Google Scholar). It is interesting that many of the civil servants who originally formed or joined the Club did so in opposition to the Algerian war and later to de Gaulle's regime. Gradually, however, the dissidents came to terms with the regime, so that today many of the regime's strongest former critics occupy important posts in the government. Concomitantly, the role of the Club

⁸⁴ Grémion, Pierre, “Introduction à une étude du système politico-administratif local,” Sociologie du Travail, xii (January-March 1970), 63Google Scholar. Nevertheless, Crozier's study does suffer as a result of this limitation.

⁸⁵ Wilson, James Q., Varieties of Police Behavior (New York 1970), 2Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ See Pagès, Robert, “L'élasticité d'une organisation en crise de direction,” Sociologie du Travail, vii (October-December 1965Google Scholar).

⁸⁷ (Paris 1968.)

⁸⁸ Ibid., 155.

⁸⁹ See Worms's, “Le Préfet et ses notables,” Sociologie du Travail, viii (July-September 1966), 246–75. For the mayor's view of the prefect, see Kesselman, Mark, The Ambiguous Consensus: A Study of Local Government in France (New York 1967), 95Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ See Siwek-Pouydesseau, Le Corps prefectoral.

⁹¹ (Paris 1969.)

⁹² How this reform was conceived and modified as those responsible for its conception were succeeded by others is currently the subject of a survey that promises to give rise to the first major decision-making study of the French administration. For the preliminary results of this study, see Catherine Gremion, “Les Structures du systeme de decision de la haute administration franchise,” Mimeo., Groupe de Sociologie des Organisations, Paris, November 1969.

⁹³ Friedberg, Erhard and Thoenig, J.-C., “Politique urbaines et stratégies corporatives,” Sociologie du Travail, Special Number, xi (October-December 1969Google Scholar).

⁹⁴ Ibid., 388.

⁹⁵ (Paris 1969.)

⁹⁶ The detailed study of local administration has also more or less preceded the study of the central administration in Italy. See Demarchi, Franco, L'Ideologia del funzionario (Milan 1969Google Scholar) and Ammassari, P. and others, Il Burocrate di Fronte alia Burocrazia (Milan 1969Google Scholar).

⁹⁷ See the excellent article by Lautman, Jacques and Thoenig, Jean-Claude, “Conflits internes et unité d'action: le cas d'une administration centrale,” Sociologie du Travail, viii (July-September 1966), 296–316CrossRefGoogle Scholar.