Superiorly Normal: Renewal and Normalisation of Esprit de Corps

Around 1800, esprit de corps became a praised notion once more in France, provided that its manifestation was not only authorised but also controlled by the state. In the early nineteenth century, esprit de corps was nationally manufactured, and Napoleon was its first engineer. The phrase came to describe an institutionalised form of competition for social distinction, a new national sport, the expected prizes of which were individual prestige and collective order. This national production of esprit de corps became possible partly because of the generalised acceptance that humans have a natural tendency to form rivalling coteries: instead of trying in vain to crush intermediary groups, as attempted by the Revolution, a strong state was to organise, supervise and utilise them.

This programme was clearly theorised by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Bonaparte's minister of foreign affairs. In 1800, Talleyrand told the other members of the government that each branch of state administration should have its own subordinate ‘esprit‘: ‘This spirit [esprit] confers unity, uniformity, and a certain energy to the conducting of business; it transmits a tradition of duties’ and ‘binds the corps and its individual members to the Government’, the latter being the ‘goal and source of all consideration’. Talleyrand advocated a system of promotions, rewards and advancements that became the basis of France's state bureaucracy.

The forging of the citizen's esprit de corps in the name of social order started early in life. Lycées and boarding schools became places of masculine friendship: ‘The camaraderie of the schools and the strong esprit de corps that resulted […] often delinquent within the internat [boarding school]’ was expected to produce disciplined servitors of the state afterwards. The elite offspring were given the opportunity to develop an elitist esprit de corps in the newly created grandes écoles, which are still today a pillar of French education. A student of the prestig-ious École polytéchnique in the years 1814–16, the philosopher Auguste Comte ecstatically described this higher education institution as a ‘paradise, where the most perfect union existed among the students’.