The Development and Current Features of the French Civil Service System

Austerity and social dialogue in French local government

“…The employment conditions of all public servants are laid down by statute rather than contract, placing the government in a sovereign position (Bach and Kessler, 2007), since the negotiation options set out in the 1983 statute are small. Reform plans inspired by new public management have sought to alter this model by introducing more contracts (Bercy agreements), by reorganizing administrative departments, and by changing wage-setting conditions, though without transforming the statute's underlying economic rationale (Bezes and Jeannot, 2011;Jeannot and Rouban, 2009). National dialogue seems formal and limited in impact (Rehfeldt and Vincent, 2004), making France comparable with other southern European countries (Bach and Bordogna, 2011).…”

“…An industrial relations reform was undertaken at national level between 2008 and 2010 (Bercy agreements). Its aim was to introduce an element of negotiation into a system governed by statute and unilateral decision-making through changing the conditions of union representation to restore union legitimacy and through outlining conditions for binding contracts between employer and employee (Bezes and Jeannot, 2011). The origins of this reform predate the pressure of austerity, and were the result of the longstanding criticism of overly formalistic industrial relations in the public sector and the idea of adapting equivalent reforms applying to the private sector.…”

From smooth NPMization to structural changes in France: accelerated reforms, mixed perceptions

“…The existence of this "rigid [legal] backbone" (Knill, 1999, p. 115) explains why any "new" types of ideas -such as the "new public management" movement"have been filtered. The existence of specific training schools designed to train upper-level civil servants (at the top of them, the Ecolenationaled'administration, Eymeri, 2001) is another institutional related feature that even accentuated this trend (Bezes, Jeannot, 2011). The fourth component concerns the political-administrative nexus and points to the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats "at the top".…”

Trajectories of Administrative Reform: Institutions, Timing and Choices in France and Spain

“…In France, the merger of the corps into a limited number of larger occupational definitions appeared in 2002 due to the growing influence of the local civil service model and the model of private firms (Rouban 2008;Gervais 2010;Bezes and Jeannot 2011). The creation of job-based frameworks (as in health, security, social, financial administration, culture, training and general management) was discussed from 2002 to 2005 but was never transformed into legislation and was ultimately abandoned.…”