The Reforms of the French Higher Civil Service since 1945 I—THE CRITICISMS AND THE MEASURES
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1955.tb01634.x |
| Author | T. Feyzioglu |
| Published date | 01 March 1955 |
| Date | 01 March 1955 |
The Reforms
of
the
French
Higher Civil
Service since
I945
I-THE CRITICISMS
AND
THE MEASURES
By
T.
FEYZIOGLU
This
is
rheJirst
of
two articles explaining and assessing the reform of the
French Civil Service, particularly those directed
to
widening recruitmetit
and training.
Tile
second will exarniue the effect
of
these changes.
THE 1945 REFORMS
IN
OUTLINE
I
an
N
October,
1945,
the Provisional Government of General de Gaulle carried
out
a
series of reforms concerning the recruitment and the training
of
important section of the French Higher Civil Service. The reforms,
prepared by a Provisional Commission of five members (the
Mission Provisoire
de Rkforme de
la
Fonction Publique)
and approved by the Provisional Con-
sultative Assembly, were directed to several ends.
1.
One of the ideas which lay behind the reforms was the need for a
central organ, capable
of
elaborating
a
common and consistent policy
on
all problems concerning the Civil Service
:
the
Direction de
la
Fonction
Publique
and the
Conseil Pzrmanent de
1’
Administration Civile
were created
to meet this necessity.’
2.
The second aim was the centralisation and the unification of the
recruitment for the higher Civil Service. Before the Second World War,
the important administrative bodies called
“
les Grands Corps de Z’Etat,”
such as the
Conseil d’Etat,
the
Inspection des Finances,
the
Cour
des Comptes
and, in fact, each Department used to recruit their officials by means of a
competition of their own, conducted by their own members. The competitive
examinations organised by the three
Grands Corps
just cited and by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs were of the highest standing and could be relied
on to attract the best candidates. But an administrative career in other
Departments was not sufficiently sought after and the competitions leading
to them could not entice enough candidates with suitable qualities.
The examinations organised by various
Grands Corps
and Departments
were different from one another, because in every case specialised knowledge
was required from the candidates. Especially for the
Grands Corps,
success
in the competitions necessitated a long and highly specialised private pre-
paration, following
on
the higher education. The place given in these
examinations to general education and to the character
of
the candidates was
considered by the reformers to be inadequate.
The reforms of
1945
achieved a large degree of uniformity and
of
centralisation, by creating
a
new institution, the
Ecole Nationale d’Admin-
istration
(E.N.A.) to which the recruitment and the training of young
candidates for the following
corps
were entrusted
:
the
Conseil d’Etat,
the
Cour
des
Comptes,
the main central inspectorates
(Inspection des Finances
69
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
and the
Inspection GknPrale de l’ddministration),
the diplomatic service, the
Corps Prkfectoral,
the
Corps de Contr6leurs Civils
of Morocco and Tunisia,
the
Administrateurs des Services Civils
of Algeria. The members of a new
category of higher civil servants called
administrateurs civils
were also to be
recruited and trained by the E.N.A. This new category was created in all
Ministries, except those requiring a special recruitment system, such as the
MinistPre de
la
Justice,
the
Ministhre des Colonies,
the
MinistPre des Postes,
Tkltgraphes et Tklkphones.3
Thus, the entrance examinations to the National Administrative College
(E.N.A.) constitute today the way in which the
most
important section
of the French Higher Civil Service is recruited. There arc, however, in
France many other
Grandes Ecoles
preparing their students for public service.
The technicians, such as the
inginieurs des Ponts et ChaussPes,
the
inginizurs
des mines,
the
ingknieurs des
P.
T. T.,
the
ingknieurs de l’air,
etc., are still recruited
by separate b~dies.~ The graduate of the
Polytechnique
may enter, without
passing any competitive examination, one of the numerous
Ecoles d’rlppli-
cation
(such as the
Ecole Nationale des Ponts et ChaussPes, Ecole Nationale
Supkrieure des Mines, Ecole Nationale SupPrieure des TBlkcomniiinicatioiis,
etc.) which lead to the higher technical grades. Members of these technical
grades may be, and in fact are, appointed to administrative posts of high
responsibility. But even the graduates of the
Polytechnique
or
of
the famous
Ecole Normale Suptrieure
have to enter the E.N.A. if they wish to make a
career in one of the
Corps
mentioned above.
It
is
no longer possible, even
for the
polytechniciens,
to enter any of the
Grands Corps
(for instance the
Inspection des Finances
where they used to go before the war) without passing
through the E.N.A. Since
1948,
however, one or two young mcn among
the best graduates of the
Polytechnique
have been granted the exceptional
favour of entering the E.N.A. without taking any entrance examination.
The technical personnel of the state are outside the scope of this study.
Other higher civil servants, such as the
Prkfets,
who are not necessarily
recruited among the graduates of the E.N.A., will also be left out. Only
the categories of higher civil servants recruited by the E.N.A. will be dealt
with.
3.
The creation of a new class
of
civil servants christened
“
administra-
teurs civils
”
was the third important feature of the reforms.
As
it
was thought
that the functions
“
were not sufficiently differentiated
”
inside the French
administration, the existing category
of
ridacteurs
was replaced by two new
categories
:
the
administrateurs civils
and the
secrktaires d‘adniinistration.
The latter were to be responsible for executive work. The former were
to be responsible for
:
Adapting the conduct
of
administrative affairs to the general policy
of the Government, preparing Parliamentary bills, regulations and
ministerial decisions, drawing up the directives necessary for their
execution and co-ordinating the functioning of the public services.‘
This definition of the functions of the
adnzinistrateurs cizils
is
not very
different from the definition of the British Administrative Class in the Report
of the Tomlin Commis~ion.~ The classification
of
the British Civil Service
certainly had an influence on the French reforms. The idea of classification
70
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