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Draft:History of French bureaucracy

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The Conseil d'Etat in Paris

The history of French bureaucracy is the evolution of implemented bureaucratic administration in various levels of mainland and colonial French governments. These civil service systems fully emerged during the Napoleonic era, with considerable influence from prior political structures and events both in France and in broader Europe. The Napoleonic Wars led to the fall of multiple long-lasting monarchical powers such as the Holy Roman Empire, which were replaced with French-installed bureaucratic systems. The facilities and organizational structures that were implemented in this era by the First French Empire held a strong influence on the governments of those nations long after their territories were partitioned back from France after the fall of Napoleon, and continue to hold influence today.

The term bureaucracy itself is borrowed from the French term bureaucratie, and its earliest known use in the English language was in reference to politics in France.[1]

Origins

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See also: Bureaucracy § History

King Henry II of France created a kind of court with nine judges called the Presidial court in 1552, that had jurisdiction between the parlement courts and bailiwicks of France. 65 of these courts were created, with purchasable judge seats. This type of court served until 1790, when the National Constituent Assembly suppressed them through a decree. At this point in time, the provinces of France were divided into généralités.[citation needed]

It was also during this period that the Intendant system began to develop in France, in which civil servants were appointed to French royal courts and would enforce the financial, justice, and economic control of their royal employers over their respective généralités.[2] Henry II had also begun selling banking positions to the treasury of each province by the end of his reign.

This intendant system existed in different forms until the French Revolution, with the exertions of power by certain intendants leading to issues between members of royalty, as seen with King Louis XIV during the Fronde from 1648 to 1653. During this period of history, many judicial and administrative posts were hereditary, and this class of officials composed a part of the Second Estate known as the Nobles of the Robe.[citation needed]

Napoleonic era

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The French Revolution caused intense political upheaval throughout the French government, and thus many older bureaucratic positions were replaced or removed during this period. The modern culture of distrust in local government officials by French citizens was heavily fostered during the Revolution.[3]

Upon becoming the First Consul of France after the Revolution and the War of the First Coalition, Napoleon began pursuing the elimination of nepotism in French military and public administration in favor of meritocratic leadership, a goal that stemmed from his observations as an artillery commander during the French Revolution. The creation of the Napoleonic Code was the seminal force in establishing Napoleon's meritocratic system over France. During his reign, administration over France was centralized into nominated positions of authority at the prefet, sous-prefet, and maire levels.[4]

The replacing of older European hierarchies with bureaucratic administrations was carried out by France on many of its controlled states during the Napoleonic Wars, as seen in many of the occupied Germanic kingdoms and in the Illyrian Provinces.[5]

Post-Napoleonic France

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Although many checks and balances were brought upon France after Napoleon's death, bureaucratic administration was allowed to continue existing in France after changes in the nation's government. One of the main policies that stayed in France from the Napoleonic era was the administrative hierarchy over the departements, or regions, of France. Prefets, the most centralized level of regional intendants, became some of the most powerful agents in the French government throughout the 19th century, and rivalries between a number of intendants and commissaires helped incite the May 16, 1877 crisis.[4]

Modern era

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See also: Political culture of France

The first public institute dedicated exclusively to preparing candidates for work in the civil service administration was set up on the model of École polytechnique in 1848, but only lasted for two years. It was only after World War II that the École nationale d'administration was founded in 1945.[6]

Bureaucratic and centralized administration in the French government has continued into the modern era, with France having the 5th highest percentage of government employment in its workforce out of the 32 OECD member nations as of 2008.[7] There have been reports of bureaucratic corruption in small to large levels of government across mainland France, as there have been with most developed countries.[8][9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Bureaucracy". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Intendant". Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. May 22, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
  3. ^ "French political culture". The Guardian Language Resources. October 1, 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Cobban, Alfred (April 1946). "The Napoleonic System of Administration in France". The Modern Law Review. 9 (1): 52–57. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1946.tb00997.x. JSTOR 1089742. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
  5. ^ Rowe, Michael (September 1999). "Between Empire and Home Town: Napoleonic Rule on the Rhine, 1799-1814". The Historical Journal. 42 (3): 649. doi:10.1017/S0018246X9900850X. JSTOR 3020916. S2CID 154429942. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  6. ^ Présidence du gouvernement provisoire de la République française; École nationale d'administration Paris / Strasbourg (1945). Réforme de la fonction publique : enseignement des sciences politiques, École nationale d'administration, réforme des administrations centrales pour une politique de la fonction publique (in French). Imprimerie nationale. pp. 9–12.
  7. ^ "Public Sector Compensation in Times of Austerity". OECD Library. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2012. p. 28. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  8. ^ "France archives boss Saal resigns over €40,000 taxi bill". BBC. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  9. ^ Sage, Adam (May 12, 2015). "Some choice words for the guardians of French over their high living". The Times. Retrieved July 27, 2020.

Further reading

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