A Shaky Start: The First Years of the National School for Public Administration (1945-1958)

Though it had long been envisioned, every attempt at reforming the recruitment and training of high-ranking civil servants had run aground, with the Popular Front (Front populaire) failing to create a national school for public administration. But in 1945, in the context of an overall reform of public service, the provisional government Succeeded in founding such an institution, which became one of the Liberation's most ambitious projects: However, the institution's dual nature meant that it incurred both long-standing resistance from the administrations it came to disturb, as well as, during the 1950s, the hostility of right-wing parliamentarians Who challenged its pedagogy, through measures that aimed to both bully and streamline. The Ecole nationale d'administration (National School for Public Administration) would thus have to wait until the beginning of the Fifth Republic to overcome a number of major obstacles.