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International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique
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International Political Science Review (2005), Vol 26, No. 4, 413-430
IPSiR RISP
WILLIAM GENIEYS
ABSTRACT. This article presents the position of, and debates within,
French elite sociology today. The analysis stresses the reasons for the
field's weak development, and discusses current debates about politicians
(politics as profession versus political savoir-faire) and about the
relationship between elites and the state (their role as custodians of the
state). The author underlines the dilemmas stemming from these
debates, points out the three directions (the comparative approach, the
historical approach, and the policy-making approach) that French neo-
elitism has taken, and suggests the need for a cognitive framework
permitting the study of elite action within the decision-making process in
order to improve empirical observation of how new power elites are
formed.
Introduction
Since the beginning of the classic controversy between the partisans of monism
and partisan pluralism, elite theory has facilitated the understanding of political
regimes' real nature (totalitarian versus authoritarian versus pluralistic). Indeed,
an ongoing controversy regarding elite sociology stems from the contradiction
between the theoretical debate, strongly linked to the expansion of modern social
sciences, and the refinement of methodological tools (social classes versus elites).1
For some time now elite theory has been a field of research within political
science, a discipline in which the study of the opposition between structure and
agency is omnipresent and in which empirical research is mobilized in order to
provide a comparative vision of the reality of political regimes. However, since the
1980s, certain Anglo-Saxon sociologists have suggested that the approach used by
elite theorists be reconsidered and that greater emphasis be placed on how the
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414 International Political Science Review 26(4)
arrangements and agreements between elites help one to assess the coherence of
democratic configurations across the world (Field and Higley, 1980; Higley and
Burton, 1987). The problem of democratic transitions has reinforced this trend
toward international research (Dogan and Higley, 1998; Linz and Stepan, 1996).
This article looks at how this debate has been viewed in French political science,
showing how it was initially bypassed and then led to a greater focus on the
structure of the state's political elites. More generally, we attempt to show in what
ways this response has contributed to the weak development of comparative elite
sociology in France (Aberbach et al., 1981; Putnam, 1976).
From a slightly naive culturalist approach, one might suggest that the ideology
dominant in France is one of "meritocratie republicaine," an ideology which is incom-
patible with an elitist conceptualization of power. Up until now, the ideas of the
founding fathers of elitist theory, notably Pareto and Mosca, have been reduced in
France to a simple perpetuation of French counter-revolutionary political philosophy
(from Maistre, Bonald, and so on) and have not prompted careful thought about
the relationship between elites and democracy. As a discursive category, elites are
conceptualized negatively ("It's the fault of the elites"). After two important
military political defeats in France in 1870 and 1940, two great intellectual figures,
Ernest Renan in La reforme intellectuelle et morale and Marc Bloch in L'etrange defaite,
despite a 60-year gap, evoked the same cause: the weakness of French elite leader-
ship, which they blamed for the collapse of the country's political system. Similarly,
in a book tracing the imaginary foundations present at the birth of modern
France, Pierre Birnbaum (1998: 19) shows how there arose, after the events of
1789, a division between "two Frances" due to differences between two sets of elites.
Partly because of these sociohistorical reasons, the notion of elites has never
been considered in France as an analytical variable or even as a useful concept
with which to understand changes in political power. There have been remarkably
few articles on elites published in either the Revue francaise de sociologie or the Revue
francaise de science politique since the 1950s. A synthetic overview written by
researchers from the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (FNSP) put the
word "elite" in quotes, clearly indicating the problems faced by political scientists
in using this term or concept (Cayrol et al., 1970). In analyzing the social
mechanisms at work in the French social reproduction process, Pierre Bourdieu
argued that the "elite" concept was irrelevant for a sociology of domination.
According to Bourdieu, whose influence on the development of French political
science has been notable since the 1970s, one should refuse to give any scientific
value to the theories or traditional methods of the sociology of elites, and use
instead the theory of a dominant class (Busino, 1992; Genieys, 2000).
There has, however, been a recent change in the literature, as some authors
have begun to discuss the study of elites as a way of understanding changing
regimes (Genieys, 1996; Higley and Pakulski, 2000). In this new approach to a
comparative sociology of elites, the old modes of study, as exemplified in the elite
theorists' approach to the study of French politicians, are rejected and the
problem of the comparability of elites or the French "politico-administrative" elite
(or elites) and the general weakness of comparative analysis are emphasized. A
sociology of elites as "prisoners" of the state is emerging. Understanding these
differences allows us to discern the hidden reasons for French "tardiness" with
regard to the comparative sociology of political elites. Consequently, it is necessary
to take a closer look at the path French researchers have been following as they
change their methods for studying political elites.
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 415
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416 International Political Science Review 26(4)
Other empirical research on French politicians has pointed out ways to ascend
in French society via politics (Cayrol et al., 1970, 1973; Charle, 1987; Charlot,
1973; Dogan, 1961; Gaxie, 1983). But even these studies have demonstrated a
continuing aversion to using elite theory. The very qualifying of someone as a
politician poses an epistemological, or even cultural-political, problem which is
only just beginning to fade in France (Genieys, 2000). Why has traditional French
analysis of French politicians been so slow to employ the tools of the sociology of
political elites?
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 417
"marxisme orthodoxe' (Gaxie, 1973). Work on the French political class has begun to
focus on these two main research points and has tended to put aside the debate
about Anglo-Saxon sociology on elites.
Here, one must recall the pioneering empirical research of Mattel Dogan
(1953, 1957, 1961, 1967) on the social properties of French members of
parliament. It should be pointed out that until the 1970s Dogan was one of the
rare researchers in France who carried out quantitative sociographic studies on
French politicians. He studied the origins, religious and political socialization, and
the careers of parliamentarians as well as ministers, especially those under the
Third and Fourth Republics. The "great intuition" of this scholar lay in his
decision to analyze regime change and personnel change simultaneously. None-
theless, Dogan (1953, 1957) remained very focused upon the role of social
properties (in the broad sense) in the building of political careers, in order to
emphasize the fact that the social recruitment of members of parliament is
correlated with the social image of the voters. In his later work on political
representation under the French Fifth Republic, he gives much more attention to
the question of social origins as a factor in understanding political careers. It is the
extension of this research that gave rise to empirical inquiries into the "Le depute
frangais" by researchers from the FNSP (Cayrol et al., 1970, 1973). This latter line
of study was inspired by the increasing use in the 1960s of survey research to study
members of parliament in Europe and the USA. As noted above, in the first
article, the writers criticized the research done on politicians and at the same time
pointed out the limits and put in doubt the relevance of an elitist approach to this
object (Cayrol et al., 1970). The second article begins with the clear observation
that in France no empirical inquiry had, until then, "regularly asked a large part of
the members of parliament about their social backgrounds, their discovery of
politics, their entrance into political life and their career, their conceptions of the
parliamentary function, their opinions and their beliefs" (Cayrol et al., 1973: 8).
These same researchers decided to make up for lost time by doing a large
empirical study. Unfortunately, this study was never repeated over time, which
prevented the production of longitudinal knowledge of French politicians. While
on this subject, it is interesting to note that, years later, Colette Ysmal moved
slightly away from her initial way of thinking. While still believing in the theory of
elites as prolegomenous, as in her "Les elites politiques: Un monde clos?" (Ysmal,
1995), she was now able to draw on a fund of empirical material which enriched
the initial inquiry.
With a more critical view, Daniel Gaxie published Les professionnels de la politique
(1973), in which the question of the relative autonomy of politicians was clearly
asked. Gaxie suggested an analysis of internal relationships within the articulated
political sphere which centered around a way of thinking about the concepts of
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418 International Political Science Review 26(4)
Custodians of the State Versus State Elites: The Second French Debate
Indeed, as we shall see below, in France the development of the comparative
sociology of elites came about due to the question of the complicated relationship
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 419
between such elites and the state. In response to the classic question of the theory
of elites, the question of who governs France, the answers are complicated and
contradictory: the custodians of the state versus the elite of the state. The monism
or pluralism debate is more or less explicit with an unsurpassable analytical
threshold: the French state.9 Why has comparative sociology in France come to be
so focused on the complex relation between the elite (or elites) and the state?
To answer that question, it is important now to look at the second dimension
which tends to make the analysis of elites and their relationship to the state
exceptional in France."' The first trend in this research work can be found in the
excellent first books of the US political scientist Ezra Suleiman (1976, 1979) about
elites and politics in France. This author shows that elites who were educated in
the grandes ecoles had the necessary strong and homogeneous bureaucratic training
to be placed in the world of politics. For him, the secrets of a successful, French,
modern political world resided in the emergence of these "custodians of the
state." From a slightly different analytical perspective, he also analyzes the mech-
anisms which lead to the production and reproduction of French "politico-
administrative" elites. He entirely accepts an elitist perspective, inspired by
Schumpeter and centered on the elites' "capacity to adapt" (Suleiman, 1979: 16).
He tries to show how French elites successfully adapted to social changes while
maintaining their power. This certainly explains why the important empirico-
theorique works by Ezra Suleiman were, in fact, rarely discussed in the political
science field in France. From his empirical study, Suleiman (1979: 19) gives a
wider definition, characterizing his subjects as follows:
[They are] state elites because they are trained by the state and destined [for]
its service. If they had restricted themselves just to the public services, this same
service would insure them a remarkable influence. But their importance goes
much further than the public sector as its members occupy today (even mono-
polize) the key positions of the administrative, political, industrial, financial
and even teaching sectors. We are therefore interested in the elites totally
created by the state, that is to say those who are trained, promoted and
legitimized by a highly selective teaching system and who use the education
given them by the state and the services of the state as a springboard to jump to
other careers.
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420 International Political Science Review 26(4)
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 421
seen in the manifesto Notre Etat, written by some senior officials regarding a
reform project for the French state (Fauroux and Spitz, 2000).1"
In short, in France, research on elites is frequently concentrated on the central
role of the custodians of the state in political life. Some of Bourdieu's critical
sociology and his refusal to validate the elite concept stems more from a political
ideology than a scientific one. In a more general way, we can say that the analysis
of elites in France focuses much more on the process of elite bureaucratization -
in other words, considering what happened to such leaders before they reached
positions of power.
French neo-elitism has its foundations in the work of critics who focus on the
question of how the research object is constructed. The creator of the elite object
often stumbles on the polysemy of the term "elite" (or "elites"), to which one must
add the strong theoretical implications linked to it when it is used in the singular
or the plural. Indeed, the French neo-elitist perspective is built from two
questions. The first is how these elites come about in society, that is to say, their
social properties and ideological representations. The second resides in the
analysis of the involvement of elites in the decision-making process by taking into
account multi-positional and relational resources. In short, the aim is to develop a
more integrated approach which devotes a large part of the research to the
empirical study of the interactions within power configurations. A more integrated
approach is made possible by a combination of several analytical methods: (1)
social analysis permits us to grasp social properties; (2) positional and reputational
analysis focuses on the usages of positions; (3) the cognitive approach of the
"referential" allows us to interpret action logics; and (4) relational and decisional
analysis leads to an understanding of the recomposition of power. The French
neo-elitist approach thus analyzes the dynamics of political regime changes and
the transformation of the state more precisely. It can be presented as having three
main directions: the comparative approach, the historical approach, and the
public policy approach.14
A Comparative Neo-Elitism
The first research carried out on comparative neo-elitism was simply an extension
of what Mattel Dogan had already written in his empirical research about
politicians. From this perspective, Pierre Birnbaum's works are both innovative for
the time and decisive for understanding how the comparative sociology of French
elites was built (Badie and Birnbaum, 1979; Birnbaum, 1977, 1985). In the middle
of the 1970s, in order to go further than Nicos Poulantzas' or even C. Wright Mills'
interpretations, this sociologist undertook research on the historical building of
the state in France, privileging the changes in the relationship between the elit
inside the politico-administrative power and those outside (Birnbaum, 1977).
Influenced by Stein Rokkan's historical sociology perspective,1' he showed how
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422 International Political Science Review 26(4)
A Historical Neo-Elitism
Some French social scientists have set out to understand the reality of elites from
the perspective of a historical sociology of politics. Pierre Birnbaum pursues his
research through the complex process of the integration of Jewish people in the
higher reaches of the state around the question of the role ofjuifs d'Etat. He shows
that to understand the actions of the elites, one must take into account the
cultural specificity of the social-historical context. Since the mid-1980s, Birnbaum
has worked on a large historical research project about the integration of Jewish
people in French public professions. His careful study of the political trajectory of
people from this faith, analyzing the biographical trajectory of certain families (in
its true sense) who have worked for the state, permits him to analyze the
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 423
integration process over a long period of time and ultimately to put forward a new
analytical category: the "State Jew". What he means by the latter is the Jewish elite
who "from the outset show a true appreciation of their new roles in the public
interest service, and invest all their energy in their job, ridding themselves of their
old mindsets to now put on the noble badges of serious and responsible state
dignitaries" (Birnbaum, 1992: 8). In this analytical, historical framework, it is not a
matter of measuring the social determinism of the elites, but more of identifying
the elective affinities and the adhesion logic which supports an elite category
which is singular in the development of the sens de l'Etat republicain. Strong on this
innovative social-historical way of thinking, the writer opens up a second area of
research with the story of 171 Jewish grands commis de l'Etat (judges, generals, prefets,
and sous-prefets), showing the career impediments due to "race" or "religion"
under the Third Republic as these "madmen of the Republic" are obliged to face a
regime which willingly embraced popular anti-Semitic presumptions.
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424 International Political Science Review 26(4)
work of Jobert and Muller (1987) on "I'Etat en action." The analysis of public
policies (in asking about the roles of actors in public policy-making) has opened a
fertile area for this type of investigation regarding the role of the French
custodians of the state in political changes. The early research emphasized the
interrelations between ideological representations and the production of a
particular "referentiel d'action publique"' on sectoral public policies.20 From this
perspective, which goes beyond statist, neo-corporatist approaches, it is necessary
to understand how "sectoral" elites see the world when "structuring the logic of
state action." Therefore, public decisions can be considered to be the result of a
process of imposing cognitive representations elaborated by the sectoral elites
(which are most often composed of different groups of custodians of the state).
This research perspective inspired a major work of comparative sociology studying
the role of certain elites in the imposition of "neo-liberal ideas in French public
policies" (Jobert and Theret, 1994).21 This research, even if it does not explicitly
adhere to an elitist perspective, opens the way to a research area in which state
elites are understood from the point of view of cognitive mobilization and
intellectual influence on the decision process. Comparative analysis of this
differential reception of neo-liberalism allows us to update the different elite
categories, particularly in France by including "the state economists," who in the
socialist government cabinets since 1983, have carried this change to the heart of
the state (Jobert, 1994). This new elitist perspective can be interpreted as a
reconsideration of the role of bureaucratic elites in the state transformation
process. Since then a new sociology of elites in interaction has come into being -
whereby the question of who governs goes along with that of what is governed.
From the perspective of the elites-in-action analysis, some work on the role of this
sectional elite in employment, health, and public social policies in France since
1981 has been carried out (Genieys, 2005; Mathiot, 2000). Understanding of the
role of these elites or elite groups in the decision-making process in the state
welfare sector was enriched by pursuing a deeper explanation of their social
background and their "politico-administrative" trajectory. The use of this method
helped explain the turn toward neo-liberalism in France, led by the left, and made
it possible to show the existence at the heart of the state of a small group forming
a "Welfare elite" that was characterized by the accumulation of several types of
resources (administrative, political, survey, and relational) and the long period
spent in one sector (more than three years). The analysis of these trajectories
shows how specialized bodies such as the Cours des comptes or the Inspection
generale des affaires sociales (IGAS), but also the training given in the Direction
de la Prevision and the Direction du Budget at Bercy (Finance Ministry) are strong
indicators of the growing autonomy of this elite. In terms of social representation,
the welfare state shares a common "cognitive framework" (referential): "To keep
social security one must adapt to financial constraints, reinforcing the role of State
piloting and focusing social allowances on those the least provided for" (Genieys,
2005).
By way of conclusion, we wish to insist on the fact that the work done on French
neo-elitism is particularly significant for the development of French elite sociology
when dealing with international comparisons. It is thus important that this most
recent approach to the study of elites always takes into account both the
programmatic ideas that elites generate and the strategic positions that they
occupy in western democracies, in order to be able better to compare the changes
now taking place in the capitalist model of government (Lehmbruch, 2003: 41).
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 425
Notes
3. For an overview of the stakes involved in the debate carried out in this roundtable, see
the three dossiers (I, II, and III) produced from it and published in Revue francaise de
science politique (1964a, 1964b, 1965).
4. Aron points to a pre-existing semantic quarrel around the terms "ruling class," "elites,"
and "establishment." He specifies that "I have myself used the term [elites] in other
circumstances because it is in current use but, upon reflection, I think it better to speak
of political personnel." Aron's expression, "personnel politique," might seem to refer
generally to all elected officials, but its use by him and his successors, as we will see
below, makes it clear that the reference is more narrowly to members of parliament
only.
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426 International Political Science Review 26(4)
in western democracy tend too often to group France's situation with that of countries
such as Germany and Italy (Aberbach et al., 1981).
11. Much research followed which confirmed this sociological singularity and which also
separated itself from the comparative sociology of elites. This is the case with
Dominique Chagnollaud (1991), who is interested more particularly in the history of
institutions such as the Ecole Libre des Science Politique (today, Science Po) or even
the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), in order to show how senior officials
became, in France, "le premier des Ordres" in the second half of the 20th century.
12. This phenomenon is even more explicit in Alain Garrigou's (2001) work Les delites contre
la Republique. Here, the author denounces both the transformation of Science Po into a
business school and the conflict generated by ENA's being the center for the state's
"nobility." In the framework of this work, the term "elites" is used in order to denounce
the monopolizing of power by the state's aristocracy.
13. In a critical article on this work, Francoise Dreyfus (2002) shows how, in France, this
state elite claims a monopoly of state expertise. She attributes this recent phenomenon
to a considerable weakening of academic work on the administrative science of the
state.
14. By French neo-elitism, we refer to the work done in the 1980s which simply added to
what Mattel Dogan had already written about politicians, leading to the role of elites
and the dynamics of political regimes. Following the example of certain political
scientists, he puts forward the importance of both the functioning of the state and of
democratic procedures (Dogan and Higley, 1998; Field and Higley, 1980; Higley and
Gunther, 1992).
15. In an introductory chapter about his own research background, it is the author himself
who mentions the help and support which Rokkan gave him in developing this research
perspective (Birnbaum, 1997).
16. In collaboration with Betrand Badie, he shows how the processes of differentiation or of
dedifferentiation of the state leads to the emergence of a particular type of elite. From
this, the apprehension of values and cultural codes become elements for the
comprehension of the training of an elite (Badie and Birnbaum, 1979).
17. "Cohabitation" goes back to a period when duel executive power opposed a president de
la Republique and a premier ministre from different political parties. Since the middle of
the 1980s, France has seen three periods of "cohabitation": 1986-88, 1993-95, and
1997-2002. This institutional dysfonctionnement is not innocent with regard to the "crises"
which today affect the Fifth Republic.
18. It was then a question of rereading the role of the elites committed to this process,
taking into account not only their social attributes and their political trajectory
(individual or collective), but also the political representations which they bear. The
analysis of the political trajectories of Spanish peripheral elites confirms the overlap of
two logics within the political representation (central and periphery) at the heart of this
political system (Genieys, 1997).
19. The following is Christophe Charle's (1997: 39) recent defense of the terminology of
the word "elite": "Je reconnais les inconvenients de l'emploi de l'expression 'les elites'
en raison de l'heritage paretien et de son usage empirique vague dans certains travaux
de sociologie ou de science politique. Deux avantages expliquent malgre tout que j'y
recoure: d'une part, le syntagme permet d'embrasser, sous un concept plus abstrait, les
divers types de groupes dirigeants ou dominants qui se sont succedes en France depuis
deux siecles et dont les appellations, historiquement datees, ont change au fil des
regimes; d'autre part, la forme plurielle rappelle deux traits affirmes des groupes
dirigeants en France que cet article essaie d'expliquer: la pluralite des groupes en lutte
dans le champ du pouvoir et leur legitimite en permanence contestee."
20. Bruno Jobert and Pierre Muller (1987: 68-9) define this as: "l'image dominante du
secteur, de la discipline, de la profession ... Il est construit: c'est une image sociale du
secteur. Il n'est pas rationnel parce qu'il correspond d'abord a la perception qu'ont les
groupes dominant le secteur et conforme i leur interets corporatifs ... C'est une image
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GENIEYS: The Sociology of Political Elites in France 427
qui est elle meme le produit des rapports de force dans le secteur. Souvent, la structure
mime du referentiel refletera un compromise entre les differentes elites en
competition au sein du secteur."
21. This research opens the way to a research area in which state elites are understood
through their cognitive mobilization and intellectual influence on the decision-making
processes. The comparative analysis of this differential reception of neo-liberalism
allows us to update different elite categories which have carried this change into the
heart of the state. Therefore, it is up to researchers to grasp the modalities of ideational
imposition in a new way in order to build public action without falling into a linear
approach to new elites whereby those with the most appropriate "world vision" would
come to replace the old elite (Jobert and Theret, 1994).
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Biographical Note
Acknowledgments. The author thanks Holly Chevalier for translating this article from French
into English and his colleagues John Higley (University of Texas at Austin) and Marc Smyrl
(University of Montpellier) for their helpful comments.
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