FRENCH CIVILISATION

ELITISM AND THE FRENCH CIVIL SERVICE

Introduced by Professor James Coveney, on 15 February 1999

The majority of French higher civil servants are recruited and trained by the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), founded in Paris in 1945. The ENA is not part of the French university system but a postgraduate Grande École. The Grandes Écoles select students by competitive examination ( concours), mostly straight from school, many in the engineering profession. Thus, the Grandes Écoles train an élite within the higher education system. The two most famous are Polytechnique and École Normale Supérieure.

The Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris prepares most successful students at the concours for ENA. The course at ENA lasts for 27 months of which the first year is on-the-job training with a préfet , ambassador, international organisation or business firm. The 15 months of study, half of which is spent in Strasbourg, is very intensive and highly competitive. At the end of the course students are classified in order of merit based on marks obtained in written tests and on the report prepared during on-the-job training. The order of merit determines where students are assigned in the civil service. The first 15 (of the intake of about 100) opt for one of the three Grande Corps, i.e. Conseil d'État, Inspection des Finances, Cour des Comptes. There is no equivalent in the UK civil service.

The UK method of selecting higher civil servants (administration trainees) is based on a two-day selection procedure at the Civil Service Selection Board consisting of written tests plus interviews. Thereafter performance at the Final Selection Board interview is decisive for order of merit and allocation to departments for on-the-job training. Attempts are made to avoid the accusation of élitism by efforts to reduce the proportion of successful applicants from Oxford and Cambridge.

Former students of ENA frequently enter politics via ministerial cabinets or move into lucrative posts in the private sector at an early age. Six ministers in the present French government are former students at ENA, as well as the Prime Minister and the President. ENA is undoubtedly élitist but in France is regarded as a means of ensuring the Napoleonic and Republican `carriere ouverte aux talents'.

There was discussion of the French insistence on linguistic skills and the British view that they are quite unnecessary; the status of INSEAD; the renewal (or not) of the curriculum in ENA; the movement between the civil service and the private sector in France, non-existent here; and the middle class domination of entry to the Grandes Écoles via its access to the few schools preparing pupils for the concours.

Anne Whitmarsh