<Articles>The Training of High-Ranking Officials in France in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century : The Auditorat in the Conseil d'Etat under the Second Empire and the Third Republic

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  • <論説>一九世紀後半フランスにおける上級行政官の養成 : 第二帝政期および第三共和政期のコンセイユ・デタ傍聴官制度を中心に
  • 一九世紀後半フランスにおける上級行政官の養成 : 第二帝政期および第三共和政期のコンセイユ・デタ傍聴官制度を中心に
  • イチキュウセイキ コウハン フランス ニ オケル ジョウキュウ ギョウセイカン ノ ヨウセイ : ダイニ テイセイキ オヨビ ダイサン キョウワセイキ ノ コンセイユ ・ デタ ボウチョウ カンセイド オ チュウシン ニ
  • The Training of High-Ranking Officials in France in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century : The Auditorat in the Conseil d'Etat under the Second Empire and the Third Republic

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Abstract

This article discusses how high-ranking officials were trained under the essentially different political systems of France's Second Empire and Third Republic during the second half of the nineteenth century, when the outline of the public employee system of modern France was gradually being established. The author takes up the case of Auditorat in the Conseil d'Etat, focusing on the logic behind the recruitment and training of its administrative officials, and has confirmed the following points. The author first finds that the Second Empire intended to use a list of candidates for auditeur and applications to recruit candidates who had sufficient capabilities, including career record and personal character, as well as the contributions of his family line to the state, and possession of economic stability. However, the strict selection process known as method-concours -, which was prescribed for the recruitment of auditeurs in the last years of the Second Empire, was adopted by the Third Republic but made into one that required greater capabilities on the part of a candidate. Secondly, from the first half of the nineteenth century onward the social origin of more than half of the auditeurs was derived from the class of public employees, and this situation was reproduced until the twentieth century, Thirdly, as to the career path of auditeurs, the author points out that approximately forty percent of the auditeurs acquired the skills of an administrative official through experience gained in various career paths, including posts in the central administration and/or local administration during the Second Empire. This proportion exceeded that of previous governments. In other words, one sees that an ideal career of an auditeur in the Second Empire involved the training of auditeur in various public offices. The Third Republic adopted this career path as its ideal, and it was maintained until 1900, when the ideal structure of auditeur 's career changed. And, it is assumed that a reason of this change in the ideal was that many people who finished the Ecole libre des sciences politiques were recruited as auditeurs. From the above, the author confirmed that the character of the auditorat, including in terms of its adoption and variations, had changed in regard to recruitment, social class, and career path, under these two governments that had different characters. Finally, the author clarified the impact that the auditorat had on national policy and the bureaucracy in the second half of the nineteenth century. As to the impact on national policy, all auditeur who was charged with carrying out the national will as a member of the Grands Corps would be transferred temporarily to local high-ranking administrative posts that were held generally by local natives, making possible support of the centralized administrative system on the personnel level. As to an impact on the bureaucracy, the implementation of the concours in the recruitment of auditeur beginning with the last years of the Second Empire preceded that in other administrative organs. It is assumed that the concours of auditeur Played a leading role in the improvement of recruitment of high-ranking administrative official because other administrative organs began to implement their concours due to the influence of concours of auditeur. Moreover, the auditorat was the touchstone in ascertaining changes in the value of the social position of young high ranking officials. As a result of the fact that the recruitment from 'different' social classes (other than the ruling class) was regarded as dangerous-a view that continued until the Second Empire, with the exception of the Second Republic-recruitment was aimed at people whose social and economic stability was secure. Nevertheless, the implementation of a wage system for the auditeurs opened the door to high-ranking officialdom for young candidates. It is assumed that this change had a similar impact of opening the doors of high-r

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 98 (3), 467-500, 2015-05-31

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

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