The French Civil Service (French: fonction publique française) is the set of civil servants (fonctionnaires) working for the French government. Symbol of the French government The government of France is a semi-presidential system based on the French Constitution of the fifth Republic, in which the nation declares itself to be an indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic. The constitution provides for a separation of powers and proclaims Frances...

Not all employees of the state and public institutions or corporations are civil servants; however, the media often incorrectly equate "government employee" or "employee of a public corporation" with fonctionnaire. For instance, most employees of RATP and SNCF (road and rail transport authorities) are not civil servants. The Civil Service is also sometimes incorrectly referred to as the administration, but, properly speaking, the administration is the compound of public administrations and public administrative establishments, not their employees. Métro trains entering Église dAuteuil station The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) is the major transit authority responsible for public transportation in Paris and its environs. ... An SNCF multiple unit. ...

About half of the civil servants are employed in the French public education system. Schoolsystem in France The French educational system is highly centralised, organised, and ramified. ...

Divisions

The Civil Service is divided into:

• the civil service of the State (fonction publique de l'État, see particular statutes);
• the judiciary (magistrature) (see particular statutes);
• the civil service of public hospitals (fonction publique hospitalière, see particular statutes);
• the civil service of local governments (fonction publique territoriale, see particular statutes).

Technically, fonction publique may also refer to fonction publique militaire, the personnel of military status. They are generally counted apart. There also exist ouvriers d'État - that is, State Workers - for industrial functions.

Corps and ranks

Civil servants of the State are divided into corps (administration), which may themselves be divided into ranks (grades) (called classes in certain corps). Corps are grouped in 3 categories (formerly 4) named A to C, in decreasing order of educational knowledge theoretically required, A meaning "college graduate". For instance, the corps of professors of the universities is a category A corps divided into 3 classes, in increasing order of seniority: second class (equivalent to an American associate professor), first class (full professor), exceptional class (leading full professor in his area). Generally, to avoid rank inflation, the number of civil servants in the higher ranks (especially "exceptional class") is contrained by a maximal percentage of the total number of civil servants of the corps. Each corps has a set of possible job or task descriptions and may have its own particular statutes. A command hierarchy is a group of people committed to carrying out orders from the top, that is, of authority. ...

Other French Civil Services have different organisations ; for instance the Fonction Publique Territoriale is not divided between rigid "corps" but between "cadres d'emploi" (type of job).

Great corps of the State

Certain corps enjoying particular prestige are called "the great corps of the State" [1]:

• Great technical corps of the State, consisting of engineers, generally recruited through École Polytechnique (also through the écoles normales supérieures). In practice, they are more likely to be employed in executive positions than in purely technical positions.
  • Corps of Mines
  • Corps of Roads and Bridges
  • Corps of Telecommunications
• Great administrative corps of the State, generally recruited through the École Nationale d'Administration
  • Conseil d'État
  • Court of Auditors
  • General Inspection of Finances.

High-level administrative positions are typically paid much less than the equivalent positions in private industries. However, members of great Corps often practice pantouflage — that is, they take temporarily (and sometimes permanent) leaves from government work and go work in industry. Occasionally, people from a ministry supervising some industry would later go to work in that same industry; this practice was later prohibited. Pantouflage however still exists, and the cozyness between some industrial, political and administrative circles is regularly denounced. For the Technical Symposium of NITK Surathkal Engineer , see Engineer (Technical Fest). ... The Arms of the École Polytechnique The cadets of Polytechnique rushed to the defense of Paris against the foreign armies in 1814. ... The quadrangle at the main ENS building on rue dUlm is known as the Cour aux Ernests – the Ernests being the goldfish in the pond. ... The Corps of Mines (in French Corps des Mines) is the foremost of the great technical corps of the French state. ... The Corps of Bridges (Corps des Ponts) is a great technical corps of the French state. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In France, the Conseil dÉtat (English: Council of State and sometimes Counsel of State) is an organ of the French national government. ... The Cour des Comptes (Court of Accounts, also translated into Court of Financial Auditors) is a institution of the Government of France whose duty is to audit public institutions, as well as some private institutions. ...

Members of the great administrative corps are well represented in politics. This is facilitated by civil servants (of any level) being able to exerce elected office on a temporary leave (détachement) from government. Politics of France takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ...

Duties

Civil servants have duties; failure to carry them out may result in disciplinary action, up to discharge. The main duties are:

Full commitment to professional activity

A civil servant should devote his full professional activity to his appointed task. By exception, a civil servant may in addition to his regular activities write books; he may also accomplish certain tasks (teaching...) with the permission of his hierarchical supervisor.

Morality

One cannot be a civil servant if one has been convicted of a crime incompatible with one's functions.

In certain exceptional cases, certain aspects of the private life of a civil servant may be termed incompatible with his functions. For instance, it is inappropriate for a member of the police or the judiciary to live with a delinquent partner or a prostitute. Appreciation of what is appropriate or not is largely a matter of jurisprudence. The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      In law, the judiciary or judicial is the system of courts which administer justice in the name of the sovereign or state, a mechanism for the resolution of disputes. ... Delinquent means one who fails to do that which is required by law or by duty and such failure is minor in nature. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. ...

Reserve

A civil servant should not, by his actions and especially by his declarations, cause harm to institutions. Appreciation of what is appropriate or not is largely a matter of jurisprudence. Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. ...

Generally speaking, a civil servant should always refrain from enunciating personal opinions in a manner that can be construed as expressing the official opinion of the French government or a public institution. Obviously, this is more of a matter for the higher managerial positions. Agents operating abroad should be especially prudent. For instance, an ambassador should refrain from making any private comment on international issues. For other uses, see Ambassador (disambiguation). ...

The academic freedom of university professors is a fundamental principle recognized by the laws of the Republic, as defined by the Constitutional Council; furthermore, statute law declares about higher education that teachers-researchers [university professors and assistant professors], researchers and teachers are fully independent and enjoy full freedom of speech in the course of their research and teaching activities, provided they respect, following university traditions and the dispositions of this code, principles of tolerance and objectivity (Education Code, L952-2). Academic freedom is the freedom of teachers, students, and academic institutions to pursue knowledge wherever it may lead, without undue or unreasonable interference. ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... A republican guard giving directions to visitors at the front entrance of the Constitutional Council The Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. ... The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Research is often described as an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising facts. ... In education, teachers are those who teach students or pupils, often a course of study or a practical skill. ...

Hierarchical obedience

A civil servant must accomplish the orders given by his hierarchical supervisor, unless those orders are evidently illegal and contrary to public interest.

While the hierarchical authority is normally responsible for assigning civil servants to positions and evaluating their work, certain corps of civil servants follow specific rules regarding the management, evaluation and discipline of their members. For instance, professors and researchers are evaluated by elected committees of their peers. A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... For the suburb of Melbourne, Australia, see Research, Victoria. ... Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ...

Professional discretion

Civil servants must not reveal private or secret information that they have gained in the course of their duties.

Honesty

Civil servants must not use the means at their professional disposal for private gain.

Neutrality

Civil servant must be neutral with respect to the religious or political opinions, origin, or sex, and should refrain from expressing their own opinions.

Recruitment and career

As an exception to the general rules concerning workers, civil servants do not sign contracts; their situation is defined by statutory and regulatory dispositions, most notably the General Statute of the Civil Servants (Statut Général des Fonctionnaires). The Statute of Grand Duchy of Lithuania A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published. ... A regulation is a legal restriction promulgated by government administrative agencies through rulemaking supported by a threat of sanction or a fine. ...

The general rule is that civil servants are recruited through competitive exams, either:

• external, reserved to competitors fulfilling certain conditions of diplomas and age;
• internal, reserved to civil servants in certain positions;
• external, reserved to competitors having certain professional experience and age.

The most common method is to organize written and/or oral exams in subjects pertaining to the tasks to be accomplished. For certain positions, such as professorships in universities, the exam, organized locally for each position or each set of similar positions, consists in the submission of a file listing the professional qualifications and experience of the candidate, followed by an interview. In all cases, a committee ranks candidates by order of preference; the positions are filled by the candidates accepting them called in that order of preference. For some top managerial positions, nominations are at the discretion of the executive. A diploma (from Greek diploma) is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study, or confers an academic degree. ... A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ...

High lever nominations are made by the President of the Republic in the council of ministers. The rest are by the head of the agency they belong to, or by a minister; in fact, they are in general appointed by some person who has received from the head of agency or minister the authority to do so. The President of France, known officially as the President of the Republic (Président de la République in French), is Frances elected Head of State. ...

Statistics

On December 31, 1999, official statistics give for the state civil service: December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

(1) Including 12,000 young employees on limited time contracts.

External link

• Ministry of the Civil Service