Technocratic Power: Myth or Reality

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Technocratic Power Myth or Reality?
ENA (National School of Administration) in
Strasbourg (site of a former prison)
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Overview of the French High Level Bureaucrats
The Selection of Bureaucrats

• Selection The Grandes Ecoles
• E.N.A National School of Administration
• Created in 1945
• Goal to train bureaucrats for positions in the
  highest levels of the French Administration
• Famous Graduates 2 Presidents, 7 Prime Ministers
  

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• Ecole Polytechnique (alias X)
• Created in 1794
• Goal train future
• engineers
• Famous graduates
• Valéry Giscard dEstaing
• (Pres.), André Giraud (former minister), Bruno
• Mégret (Leader of Far-Right party)

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• Ecole Normale Superieure (also called Normale
  sup or Ulm)
• Created in 1795
• Goal train academics
• Famous graduates Laurent Fabius (former P.M.),
  Alain Juppé (former P.M.), George Pompidou
  (former President and P.M.)

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What do Graduates Do?

• Join Grands Corps for a few
• years, then move on to high level
• positions in public or private
• firms
• Definition Administrative or technical state
  agencies that are composed of high level civil
  servants.
• A List of Administrative Grands Corps
• Conseil dEtat (legal advice and administrative
  judge)
• Cours des Comptes (budget management)
• Inspection Générale des Finances (overisght of
  public spending)
• Inspection Générale de lAdministration
  (administrative oversight)
• Inspection Générale des Affaires Sociales (social
  services oversight)

Conseil dEtat
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• A List of Technical Grands Corps
• Corps des Mines (industry)
• Corps des Ponts et Chaussees (transportation
  infrastructures)
• Corps des Telecommunications (telecommunications)
• Corps des Ingénieurs de lArmement (armament)
• Corps des Administrateurs de lINSEE (statistics
  demography)

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A French Technocracy?

• Definition
• A form of government in which policy-making in
  the hands of experts selected for and legitimized
  by their administrative or technical expertise.

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Commonly Held Beliefs about French High Level
Bureaucrats

• Policy-making authority under the Fourth Republic
• Policy-making authority under the Fifth Republic
• An elitist selection
• A cohesive group (LEsprit de Corps)
• That benefits from State expansion
• A high level of expertise

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Myth or Reality?

• Policy-making authority under the Fourth
  Republic?
• Policy-making authority under the Fifth Republic?

Source Safran (2009, 293) French prime minister
website
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• An elitist selection?
• Probability of being admitted in a Grande Ecole
  (Albouy and Wanecq 2003, 31)
• If your father is from the upper class 1 out of
  6
• If your father is from the middle class 1 out of
  23
• If your father is from the lower class 1 out of
  85

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• An Esprit de Corps or a divided elite?
• A common background
• A school and corps as socializing agents
• But some differences
• Individual preferences
• Interests vs. network

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• That benefits from state expansion?
• State expansion after WWII
• But not true since the mid 1980s
• Privatizations
• Europeanization
• Budgetary austerity

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• A high level of expertise?
• A true intellectual capacity
• But not always a successful elite

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