Vichy's finance minister Yves Bouthillier described the regime that he had served as ‘the triumph of administration over polities’. An attentive reader of recent research on modern France might well conclude that this judgement could be extended to the whole of the twentieth century. Historians have devoted great attention to the workings of the French civil service, and especially its upper levels. In part this is due to the conscious efforts of civil service departments to encourage the study of their own role. In part it also springs from a certain affinity between French academics and civil servants: the professor who has been formed by the école normale supérieure, the agrégation and the doctorat d'état is not so different from the functionary who has been formed by the institut d'études politiques, the école nationale d'administration and a grand corps. Most importantly of all, it is easier to study the Fourth Republic civil service than it is to study Fourth Republic politics. Documents for the administration are centralized and catalogued while those of politicians are scattered, lost or inaccessible.

Historians who study the civil service emphasize the degree of power that it exercised, particularly with reference to economic matters. Civil servants led more stable lives than politicians. Francis Bloch-Lainé remained in place as directeur du crédit while nine ministers of finance came and went. Louis Franck smugly entitled his autobiography 697 ministres. Souvenirs d'un directeur général des prix.