French Administrative Tradition

Some Institutions Change, Others Resist in France and Elsewhere

In France, the culture of public power (puissance publique, Etat) has long-standing historical roots. The State plays a central role as a regulator and a protector of common good.The foundations of the current administrative system can be tracked back to the Middle Age and even earlier to the  Roman Empire.  But the 1789 Revolution and its sequels, from the Napoleonic Empire to the Fifth Republic, have carved the current system which remained almost unchanged between the 1900s and the 1960s.

The French Tradition has been disseminated with or without adaptation

The French administrative tradition has been disseminated during the XIX^th and XX^th centuries, in Europe, the Middle-East and Latin America, where it is sometimes referred to as the Napoleonic tradition, and in the then French colonies, mostly in Africa. From the role and scope of the State to civil service management, from budget management regulations to de-concentration and decentralisation, some or all of these have affected these countries' administrative options. Today, the tradition is very much alive in French speaking African countries, including the Maghreb, and has been more freely adapted or in some instances abandoned in other parts of the world.

It is therefore important to know what the tradition calls for, and how it is evolving in the original country, including prospects of change not yet implemented in France but firmly inscribed in the reform agenda. It is also important for our clients to learn how this tradition lives in other parts of the world today, and what changes are under way or being contemplated by other governments.

French administrative institutions are changing

The growth of welfare state and state interventionism during the middle of the XX^th century resulted in rapid growth of the civil service. However, since the 1970s economic crisis and the debate on the welfare state, the impact and the cost of the administration, and its civil servants, have been debated. State reform has become a recurring political slogan. While the French system presents rigidities, a number of reforms have been carried out and innovative solutions have been adopted. The developments include de-concentration, decentralisation and increased accountability, transparency and internal and external controls. The latest reform is the budget management reform, to be fully implemented in 2006.

Civil Service has so far shunned change

The structure of the French civil service is characterised by its fragmentation, due to several factors. First, the large range of hiring bodies (ministries, local governments, health facilities, branch offices, établissements publics) and the existence of three different sections of civil service (State, Local governments, Health). Second, within the State civil service stricto sensu (i.e., with tenure), corps, grading and hierarchy are precisely defined and strengthen the esprit de corps, while contract employees belong to another planet.

Yet, several evolutions are building a case for deep changes in a structure whose pillars have not been altered significantly since the last two centuries in spite of the evolution of the role of the State, and of human resources management methods. The new budget management system implies that the current system will have to change to adapt to the new performance management requirements, the European integration changes some rules (mostly access) and rationalisation takes its toll on tradition and esprit de corps.  France would thus join the rest of the European club, whereas for the time being it is the only European country not to have undertaken a major overhaul of its civil service.

Contents of this page have been prepared by Blandine Bouniol, consultant, and Catherine Laurent, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, MNSED (November 2005).