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Secondary Education and the Professions in France During the Second Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Patrick J. Harrigan
Patrick J. Harrigan
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
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Extract

In recent years historians and sociologists alike have given increasing attention to the relationship between education and social structure in France. Louis Althusser has argued that the French educational system was designed to preserve elites. Michel Crozier concluded that the system prevented a too rapid mobility that would upset the status-quo and that ‘graduates [of grandes é'coles] have a de facto monopoly on the top brackets of the Civil Service, the universities, and medicine, and decisive advantages in entering most professions and many industrial organizations’.

Type
Education and Social Mobility
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1975 , pp. 349 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1975

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References

Financial support for this project was given by Canada Council.

1 Althusser, Louis, ‘Idéologic et appareils idéologiques d' étal (notes pour une recherche)’, La Pensée (15 Juin, 1970), 3–38.Google Scholar

2 Crozier, Michel, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (Chicago, 1964), p. 243.Google Scholar

3 O'Boyle, Lenore, ‘The Middle Class in Western Europe 1815–1848’, American Historical Review, LXXI (1966), 826–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarCobban, Alfred, ‘The “Middle Class” in France 1815–1848’, French Historical Studies, V (Spring 1967), 7–20.Google Scholar

4 Pierre Legendre found that the French bureaucracy tripled in size in relation to population between 1839 and 1914. L'Administration de 1750 à nos jours (Paris, 1968), p. 531.Google Scholar M. S. Anderson estimated that the bureaucracy increased about six times in size during the nineteenth-century, The Ascendancy of Europe: Aspects of European History 1815–1914 (London, 1972), p. 137.Google Scholar Only 8 per cent of the administration during the Directory clearly had formal education beyond minimal literacy. Church, Clive, ‘The Social Basis of the French Central Bureaucracy Under the Directory 1795–1799’, Past and Present (April 1967), 66.Google Scholar

5 For the French professions, we have no work like that of Reader, W. J., Professional Men: The Rise of the Professional Careers in Nineteenth-Century England (New York, 1966).Google Scholar But see Day, C. R., ‘Social Advancement and the Primary School Teacher: the Making of Normal School Directors in France, 1815–1880,’ Social History-Histoire Sociale, VII (05 1974), 87–102.Google Scholar

6 The data and categories developed are discussed more fully in Patrick Harrigan, ‘Social Mobility and Secondary Education in France’, in a collection of essays on education, edited by Lawrence Stone, Schooling and Society, forthcoming, from the Johns Hopkins Press.

7 Archives Nationales, F17/6926.

8 Harrigan, Patrick, ‘Catholic Secondary Education in France 1850–1882’ (unpublished dissertation, University of Michigan, 1970).Google Scholar

9 Percentages of fathers' occupations of all students and graduates in secondary schools, compared to fathers’ occupation of graduates in the sample are the following: civil service 12:12; law 6:6; high professions 8:5; low professions 3:2; rentiers/propriétaires 17:15; peasants 13:16; commercial and industrial bourgeoisie 13:12; shopkeepers 15:20; workers 8:9; others 3:2.

10 O'Boyle, Lenore, ‘The Problem of an Excess of Educated Men in Western Europe 1800–1850’, Journal of Modern History (1970), 474–95.Google Scholar

11 See Table 1. O'Boyle's article, based primarily on qualitative evidence, emphasizes the blockage that occurred after graduation from a professional school. Overcrowding of the ‘liberal professions’ was a common argument put forward by French educators who wished to expand the special or modern program. Rossat, F. S., Réformes à introduire dans l'enseignement au profit de l'Industrie du commerce et l'agriculture (Charleville, 1862), p. 16.Google ScholarBertrand, Alexis, Les Études dans la démocratic (Paris, 1900), p. 54.Google ScholarLeygnes, Georges, L'École et la vie (Paris, 1903), p. iii.Google Scholar

12 Annual Admissions to these schools varied little during the 1860s. See Archives Nationales, F17/6926.

13 Absolute numbers of students and graduates are misleading because the survey includes information for 17,124 graduates between 1859 and 1863 and for 9,191 students expecting to graduate in 1864 or 1865. The percentages used in Table 1 reflect each occupational category after an adjustment was made for the different number of graduates and students in the whole survey. The ratios are the ratios between students expressing a desire for an occupation and graduates entering it after adjustment. To equalize students and graduates, the number of graduates was multiplied by a factor of.531 (.531 x 17,124 = 9,195). For example, then, 784 students planned to enter the civil service; 1,662 graduates actually did. l,662x.531 = 892. The ratio for the civil service, then, for students to graduates is 784/892 or.88.

14 O'Boyle, ‘Problem’, 487. Her point is supported by the writings of nineteenth-century Frenchmen. In addition to the evidence she cites, some of Balzac's novels, notably Les Employés (1837), emphasize the prestige of government posts.Google Scholar

15 Chavanon, Christian, ‘L'Administration dans la société française’, in Aspects de la Société Française, ed. by Siegfried, Andre (Paris, 1954), p. 159.Google ScholarChardon, Henri, L'Administration de la France: Les Fonctionnaires (Paris, 1908), pp. 140–6.Google Scholar Nicholas Richardson discusses the problem of slow promotion during the Restoration, The French Prefectoral Corps 1814–1830 (Cambridge, 1966).Google Scholar

16 Neither Catholic nor public educators gave much attention to the relation between education and mobility. For Catholics, see Harrigan, Patrick, ‘Catholic Secondary Education in France 1850–1882’ (unpublished dissertation, University of Michigan, 1970), pp. 35–7.Google Scholar Paul Gerbod's monumental study of the thought of public educators barely mentions mobility, La Condition Universitaire (Paris, 1967).Google Scholar

17 Mortimer d'Ocagne wrote: ‘Among all our grandes écoles, there is not one that has such prestige, not one that enjoys so universal and so deserved a reputation’, and estimated that only 150 of every 1,000 candidates were admitted. He included the École Polytechnique among military schools but also noted that its graduates entered the civil service and private industry, Les Grandes Écoles (Paris, 1873), pp. 90–106.Google Scholar Edouard Charton also describes it as preparatory to careers in those three areas, Dictionnaire des professions (Paris, 1880), p. 416.Google Scholar

18 Describing civil engineering as a ‘vain title’, d'Ocagne believed that the scholastic rigor of the École Centrale gave value to the diploma and ‘almost always opened a brilliant and lucrative career’. He adds, however, that its rigor was less than the École Polytechnique, and it primarily prepared for private industry, Grandes Écoles, pp. 178–9.Google Scholar The Bulletin de l'administration publique stated that the École Centrale was designed for chefs d'industrie (June 22, 1863), 112.Google Scholar David Landes argued twenty-five years ago that private industry had low esteem in nineteenth-century France, ‘French Entrepreneurs and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of Economic History (1949), 45–61. Even if his arguments about the effect of value considerations on French economic development are now suspect in the light of recent research into the French economy, his discussion of status remains important. Few graduates of secondary schools pursued a career in private industry. See Patrick Harrigan, ‘Social Mobility’.Google Scholar

19 Y. H. Gaudemet's examination of the Chamber of Deputies in the Third Republic has revealed that 45 per cent had legal training, Les Juristes et la vie politique de la Troisiéme Republique (Paris, 1970), pp. 15–18.Google Scholar

20 Seventy-five per cent of those expecting to study law were sons of these groups. Only 45 per cent of students in secondary schools came from those groups.

21 Theodore Zeldin points to the increased number of doctors in the legislature through the nineteenth century as a sign of their higher status but also finds their status to be unsure during the Second Empire, France: Ambition, Love, Politics (Oxford, 1973), Vol. I, 23–42.Google Scholar For their increasing representation in the legislature of the Third Republic, see Gaudemet, Les Juristes. The 1880 edition of Charton speaks more positively of the medical profession, notably its prestige, than does the 1842 edition. The author of the article ‘Médecin’ refers to this difference, Dictionnaire (1880), p. 348.Google Scholar

22 O'Boyle points also to the potential social discontent of those blocked, ‘Problem’, p. 489. See also Weber, Eugen, ‘Gymnastics and Sports in Fin-de-siècle France: Opium of the Classes’, American Historical Review, LXXVI (1971), 70–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Here, as elsewhere, tables are excluded in the interest of space. For a discussion of general differences in the hopes, careers and social origins of those in the lycées and the cottéges communaux, see Harrigan, ‘Social Mobility’.

24 The term ‘lower professions’ is used here to indicate those that would normally have less prestige. As will be shown later, pharmacists and military doctors were closer in social origins and education to doctors and secondary teachers than they were to veterinarians or graduates of the Écoles d'Arts et Métiers. This article argues that there are distinctions among professionals that are not reflected in a simple division between ‘high’ and ‘low’. Nevertheless, those attending the École Polytechnique, at one extreme, and the Ecole Normale Primaire were preparing for quite different types of ‘professional’ careers, indeed, graduates of Arts et Metiers might not be considered ‘professionals’ (see note 31). For general discussion, a line of demarcation must be drawn and this one seems, to me, the best.

25 Seventy for veterinary medicine, 258 for the Écoles d'Arts et Métiers, 265 for military doctors, 254 for pharmacy, 68 for mining schools, at least 550 for primary teaching (some were listed as simply in enseignement and are excluded here).

26 Clark, Terry, Prophets and Patrons: The French University and the Emergence of the Social Sciences (Cambridge, Mass., 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 See Table 1.

28 The F17/6926 file in the Archives Nationales lists schooling backgrounds of those admitted to the grandes écoles. None are shown to have a primary education alone. Among students in this survey, over 90 per cent of those entering law, medicine, or a grande icole had graduated from the classical program.

29 d'Ocagne, , Grandes Écoles, p. 382.Google Scholar

30 ‘Notice sur les Écoles Imperiales d'Arts et Metiers’, by M. Le Brun, Inspector. His statistics show nearly a 6:1 ratio between candidates and those admitted, while Table 1 above shows about a 2:1 ratio between expectations and admissions of secondary students. His statistics, however, would include candidates who had not attended a secondary school or not completed studies in one. Students were admitted to Arts et Métiers as early as age 14. Furthermore, some secondary students might have taken the admission exam to Arts et Métiers even if it was not their preferred or expected choice. Other archival reports on these lower-professional schools indicate the social demand for them. Archives Nationales, F17/4317–4335.

31 Among recent graduates of Arts et Métiers, d'Ocagne found that most had become initially skilled workers (120 ajusteurs-mécaniciens, 15 menuisiers-modeleurs, 15 fondeurs, 10 forgerons). Most, he said, did not stay in those jobs but advanced at least to draftsmen, Grandes Écoles, pp. 149–50.Google Scholar Edouard Charton noted a century ago that there was not firm information for graduates of the Écoles d'Arts et Métiers, and we still lack it today. C. R. Day is presently analyzing occupations of their graduates. Until his work is completed, we must rely on scattered information. Charton wrote that most occupied positions ‘in industry, strictly speaking, chemins de fer ponts et chaussées, the navy and the army’. All but the first category would be government-related service. Some may also have become civil servants or teachers. Charton certainly suggests that some entered the civil service. Dictionnaire, I, p. 65Google Scholar- The ‘Notice sur les Écoles Imperiales d'Arts et Métiers’ by M. Le Brun, Inspector (F17/4317), listed the following occupations for graduates of 1861 and of 1862: Workers, chefs, sous-chefs, ajusteurs, etc., in private industry, 110; the same categories in the government-supported railroads, 77; mécaniciens in the navy or government communication system (messageries Imperiales), 47; Ponts et chaussées or agents voyers, 22; military, 4; unknown or other, 36. For those living in Paris, he found 71 engineers, 9 directeurs, 106 chefs, 159 chefs of railroads, 78 draftsmen, 20 conducteurs des ponts et chaussés, 6 master-mechanics, 30 in teaching, the military and assorted fields outside industry, 21 simply in Industrie, and a number of employés. A report on ‘Position des eleves’ for the Ecole d'Arts et M6tiers for Aix (F17/4335), for 1856 describes nearly half as draftsmen, a fourth as master—mechanics (many in the service of the government), and the remainder generally in government jobs-teachers, soldiers, or lower level administrators. The report also indicates some upward mobility of graduates of 1846 who were most often described as workers hyphenated (ouvrier-ajusteur, etc.). In general, then, graduates of Arts et Métiers seem to have been employed as often by the government as by private industry. Some attained minor administrative posts, a few middle-level positions. See also de Saporta, Antoine, ‘Une école d'Arts et Métiers’, Revue des deux mondes, CXIII (10, 1892), 557–85.Google Scholar

32 The Écoles des Mines had two divisions, one that included ‘the best graduates of the École Polytechnique’, the second that offered only a brevet. The École des Mineurs trained technicians. The sources do not differentiate among these quite different degrees often enough for total cases to have any significance.

33 See Table 2 for the following.

34 This sample excludes the Parisian lycées whose students were of higher social background than were those in provincial schools, and excludes also graduates of grandes écoles, some of whom later entered the civil service. It excludes many more civil servants, however, who did not graduate from secondary schools.

35 They certainly were not ‘almost entirely’ from aristocratic or bourgeois circles. Sharp, , Civil Service, p. 85.Google Scholar Sharp may have taken his description of social origins from Charton who wrote that civil servants came from among those ‘whose birth or education places them in the upper or middle classes', Dictionnaire, p. 1.Google Scholar Cf., Church, Clive, ‘The Social Basis of the French Central Bureaucracy Under the Directory 1785–1799’, Past and Present (April 1967), 65–6.Google Scholar

36 Church, , ‘Bureaucracy’, 65–6.Google Scholar

37 Church's sample indicates that one-third of the bureaucracy during the Directory were sons of ‘state employees’. If ‘state employees’ included only bureaucrats and if our samples are compatible, generational continuity among civil servants had declined by the Second Empire. In the more diverse society of mid-nineteenth century, one would expect less succession to fathers' occupation. Guillaume de Bertier de Sauvigny saw a change in mobility patterns between the Ancien Régime and the Restoration. In the former, sons generally followed their fathers' professions; in the latter, fathers wanted children to rise above parental status. The Bourbon Restauration (Philadelphia, 1966), p. 246. Nevertheless, Church's and this sample are too different to suggest more than a trend.Google Scholar

38 Gerbod states that 60 per cent of secondary teachers between 1815 and 1880 were sons of lower-level civil servants, primary-school teachers, shopkeepers, white-collar employees, and workers. Table 3, here, indicates 56 per cent were drawn from these groups. For the later period, see Vincent, Gérard, ‘Les Professeurs du Second degré au début du XXe siecle; essai sur la mobilité sociale et la mobilité géographique’, Mouvement social (1966), 47–73. Three different analyses show little difference.Google Scholar

39 Military schools do not seem to have been ‘filled with sons of officers and government employees’ during the 1860s as General B. Castellane claimed they were in 1846. Nor did officers, at least those graduating from St. Cyr, seem to have been recruited especially from the lower-middle classes. Castellane, , Journal (Paris, 1895), Vol. II, 373,Google Scholar quoted in Porch, Douglas, Army and Revolution (London, 1974), p. 66. Although Porch does not state that Castellane's judgements were accurate, neither does he suggest that they might not have been. This discrepancy points to the need for more detailed analysis of students and graduates of the grandes écoles.Google Scholar

40 See Table 3: 8 per cent of all students in secondary schools were sons of workers, 2 per cent sons of unskilled workers. Although other grandes écoles show no sons of unskilled workers admitted, 5 o f the 74 admissions to St. Cyr were sons of unskilled workers, and another 8 sons of skilled workers.

41 Archives Nationales, F17/7488 (1881–83). Scholarships were especially granted to sons of civil servants and the military but also to the ‘needy’ in general. The history of the bourse is a little explored subject despite a wealth of archival evidence concerning who received them and attitudes of inspectors toward recipients. About 8 per cent of secondary students in public schools received some bourse in the 1860s, but the majority o f those were partial. F17/2455.

42 Kitchen, Martin, The German Officer Corps, 1890–1914 (Oxford, 1968), pp. 23–35.Google Scholar

43 See Table 3 for the following percentages.

44 André Tudesq has shown how elements of the upper bourgeoisie merged with the aristocracy during the Monarchy, July, Les grands Notables en France (1840–1849), Etude historique d'une psychologic sociale, 2 vols. (Paris, 1964). The Ecole Polytechnique gave institutional support to this merging of upper classes and helped to give access to it in the last half of the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

45 Again, percentages rather than tables are offered here. Total cases are 39 for military doctors, 62 for pharmacists, 17 for veterinarians, 132 for primary teachers, and 71 for students in Arts et Métiers. They are not enough for detailed discussion of social origins, but they can indicate major distinctions among the lower professions.

46 About 95 per cent of those entering law, medicine, the École Polytechnique, and the École Centrale, 90 per cent of military doctors and pharmacists, and 80 per cent of those in St. Cyr, had taken the classical program. On the other hand, only 55 per cent of those entering the civil service, 25 per cent of those in primary education, and 10 per cent of students in veterinary medicine and the Écoles d'Arts et Métiers came from the classical program; the rest were graduates of the four–year program, or its earlier equivalent, the cours de français.

47 About one-and-one-half times as many students in the lycées were sons of upper-or uppermiddle-class groups as were students in the collèges communaux.

48 Although 13 per cent of students in secondary schools were sons of peasants, only 5 per cent of these in law or in the grandes écoles were sons of peasants.

49 The single Parisian lycée for which we have data, the Lycee Bonaparte, included among its clientele about 30 per cent from petit-bourgeois groups. Only a small though gradually increasing percentage of students in the grandes écoles had graduated from Catholic secondary schools during the Second Empire. Archives Nationales, F17/6926.

50 Percentages of professional sons expecting to follow the same profession as their father were consistently higher, although not dramatically so, than graduates who actually did.