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Centralization and Incremental Change in France: The Case of the Haby Educational Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Roger Duclaud-Williams
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Extract

A concern with the relationships between different levels of centralization and the management of change is long-standing in many of the social sciences. The French educational system has always stood in the minds of many as a monument to over-centralization and red tape. In her recent magisterial study, The Social Origins of Educational Systems, Archer has examined the consequences for educational change of different levels of centralization in the educational system in a variety of national settings. In her book she argues with great care and a wealth of historical example that it is possible to establish certain broad generalizations which describe the manner in which educational change is produced, and that sharp distinctions in this regard must be made between the centralized systems and the more decentralized systems. Her study covers the period up to 1974. Since then there have been very important changes in the French educational system. These changes and the political conflict which surrounded them, particularly between 1974 and 1978, are of considerable interest in their own right, to students of both comparative public policy and French politics. The principal purpose of this discussion, however, is to examine Archer's propositions about the modes of change typical of centralized systems in the light of the reforms introduced in these years. My concern is therefore with the administrative and political consequences of centralization and this inquiry leads in turn to some discussion of the role of pressure groups in the Fifth French Republic.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 71 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 Archer, Margaret Scotford, Social Origins of Educational Systems (London: Sage, 1979).Google Scholar

2 Crozier, Michel, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (London: Tavistock Publications, 1964)Google Scholar. Hoffman, Stanley, Decline or Renewal? France since the 1930s (New York: Viking Press, 1974)Google Scholar. For a less empirical critique of Crozier's conclusions see Duclaud-Williams, Roger, ‘Change in French Society: A Critical Analysis of Crozier's Bureaucratic Model’, West European Politics, IV (1981), pp. 235–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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4 Archer, , Social Origins of Educational Systems, pp. 184–208Google Scholar. ‘Systematization and unification remain the predominant pair of characteristics as specialization and differentiation are accommodated to them’ (p. 207). ‘The fact that the political elite curtails specialization in turn reduces the diversity of parts and hence the problems of dovetailing them’ (p. 207–8).

5 Archer, , Social Origins of Educational Systems, p. 271Google Scholar: ‘Political manipulation is the main process through which educational change is pursued and produced in the centralized system’.

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9 Stream i was thought of as equivalent to the teaching carried on traditionally in the lycées. Stream 2 was intended to cater for less academically able pupils who before 1963 had been accommodated in a separate establishment, similar in conception to the English secondary modern school. These schools were called ‘collèges d'enseignement général’. Stream 3, also generally housed after 1963 within the lower secondary school (Collèges d'Enseignement Secondaire or CES) contained the least able 20 per cent of pupils.

10 Le Monde, 21 06 1974.Google Scholar

11 Le Monde, 9 07 1974 and 25 07 1974.Google Scholar

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24 Senior civil servant directly concerned.

25 Haby, , Combat pour les jeunes Français, p. 109.Google Scholar

26 Le Monde, 24 03 1975.Google Scholar

27 Le Monde, 28 04 1975.Google Scholar

28 Le Monde, 31 10 1979.Google Scholar

29 Le Monde, 20 02 1975.Google Scholar

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31 PEGC: ‘Professeurs d'enseignement général des collèges’.

32 L'Express, 30 01 1978.Google Scholar

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35 Haby, , Combat pour les jeunes Français, p. 33.Google Scholar

36 Senior civil servant directly concerned.

37 Gaullist politician with previous service as civil servant in the Ministry of Education.