The interaction between politics and administration has generally been ignored by students of bureaucracy. Ezra N. Suleiman, however, views the French bureaucracy as a dynamic and integral part of the French political system. Using survey data as well as historical and contemporary sources, he concentrates on the highest officials and examines their relationships with both the political sector and the society. After identifying the place of the state in French society the author deals with the recruitment of higher civil servants, using comparative data to explain why the high social origins of French civil servants have remained constant. His investigation of the important institutional mechanisms of the central administration stresses that even a centralized and powerful bureaucracy must be seen as a complex of institutions rather than as a monolithic organization. Finally the author deals with the relations of the higher civil servants with other groups in society and with the regime of the Fifth Republic. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book examines a period of particular importance in the formation of the modern French state. The revolutionary strife and international war of the 1790s had important and far-reaching consequences for the development of democracy and bureaucracy in France. Howard G. Brown's study of changes in army administration in this period sheds light on the dynamic relationship between the spread of political participation, the rationalization of public power, and the build-up of military might. Dr Brown shows how the exigencies of war and the vagaries of revolutionary politics wrought rapid and profound changes in the structures and personnel of army administration. Although loath to see a massive military bureaucracy take root, legislators found that their desire to combine civilian control with military effectiveness made a large central administration unavoidable.

This is the first book in English on the French agency DATAR-DIACT that has been the envy of regional planners worldwide. It sheds new light on political leadership in a bureaucracy and demonstrates convincingly the impact of political leaders on institutions. It is a study of France with lessons for other political and administrative systems.

Originally published in 1964, this book was an important addition to the growing field of comparative government and administration. This book covers the organisation of the French cabinet, the structure and functions of government departments and of local authorities, the civil service, the police, the judiciary and public enterprise. There are also chapters on economic planning, the administration of social services and of the educational system. The book explains the spirit as well as the mechanism of the French administrative system, the principles that underly it and the wider background against which it is set