Civil Servants: How to Support the Political Level: The French Case

Abstract

The question how the civil service is related to the political class is a particularly complex one in France because of the political history of the country since the French Revolution, which has seen the succession of a number of fundamentally different regimes. Each regime has dealt differently with the question of how to reconcile the principles of state neutrality and continuity, which form the essence of the French understanding of civil service - with the legitimacy of political power stemming from universal suffrage. The role and the importance of the administration in public decision making have therefore undergone a considerable evolution under the different French regimes.