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An Essay on Talleyrand, the Spirit of the Civil Service, and Conditions of, and Reasons for, a Statute of the Civil Servants

1956; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/002085235602200107

0552-3060

Victor Crabbe,

Political Theory and Influence

Frenchby Victor Crabbe.An analysis of the spirit which « informs » the Civil Service —the verb being used here in its metaphysical connotation — and some considerations on the Statute of Civil Servants.The author turns to a report submitted to Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, by the famous Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, his minister then and later, having as its occasion « facilities » which the First Consul had in view for a number of Civil Service appointments.In fact, Talleyrand's report is an exposé of principles, and has lost nothing of its topical character. It is to be found on page 163 et sq. of the present issue.Talleyrand refers in the first place to the necessary respect for « the spirit of the Service », and here again « spirit » is taken as Montesquieu used the word in his « L'Esprit des Lois ». It is not traditionalism pure and simple, but rather a synthesis of the pervading sociological and functional forces of the times, and of the development itself of administration.Talleyrand then stresses the human aspect of the problem. It is not enough to draft laws and regulations: they must be implemented by men, who have to deal with structures and organisations, and therefore primarily again with men. To make this feasible, it is necessary to establish a personnel statute, though not just any personnel statute. The author has formerly written on the legal basis of this statute, advocating legislative, rather than executive, initiative.Talleyrand goes on to the need for normalising promotions, without which there is no incentive for progress, and no sense of subordination. Hierarchy is of the essence in the Civil Service, though the author warns against going too far in this direction.Speaking of the Belgian « Conseil d'Etat » which should be, in the views of Mr. Louis Camu, Royal Commissioner for Administrative Reform and the «father» of the (Belgian) Statute of Civil Servants, « its mainstay and sovereign guardian », the author points out that this function is not invariably fulfilled as it ought to be. There seems to be some chariness in opposing the provisions of the Statute to measures taken by the governmental authorities.The Talleyrand report (and the author stresses the point) insists on the honour, or the pride, of the Service, a quality which he considers a sine qua non. Too intricate a system of promotions, however, inhibits this, and results in officials being continually preoccupied with their advancement rather than with the public weal, which should be their primary consideration.Talleyrand's remarkable formulation of the Civil Service as « the link between Government and the governed, the locus of particular and of general interests, of public authority and individual freedom » is the forerunner of its present-day sociological definitions. But, quoting prof. E.P. Seeldrayers' dicta on the « objective and impersonal status of the Civil Service », the author differs somewhat in that he considers such views to be too absolute and almost totalitarian, and divorced from the teaching of political science.This is a point to be examined on some future occasion. But an abstract and neutral State is only a mirage, and the introduction of politics in administration is nothing new. A Civil Service Statute should not be simply a pact of non-agression between the political parties… one of the conclusions of a study on the Belgian Civil Service published last year by prof. André Molitor. The author bases the need for legislation on the Statute, on: public law; establishment by process of law of emergent forms of State activities (the « parastatal » establishments); the technical characteristics of administrative action; social and moral requirements consequent on the growth of administrative agencies. The fact that the Civil Service nowadays is a career pleads for a fundamental regulation of its accessibility and its modalities.