Ministerial Cabinets of the Fourth Republic

• Author: Jerome B. King
• Published date: 01 June 1960
• Date: 01 June 1960
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300210
• Subject Matter: Articles

MINISTERIAL CABINETS OF THE FOURTH REPUBLIC*
JEROME B. KING
Middlebury College
NLIKE
the bouquiniste who, when asked for a copy of a current French
constitution, replied coldly that he did not deal in periodical literature,
~―~
most commentators have tended to emphasize the legal and documentary
approach to the study of French institutions. With the recent collapse of the
Fourth Republic such a tendency is likely to be encouraged further, if only be-
cause the French themselves seem to have a marvelous faith in the power of
the written word to remake their political machinery. For this reason a study of
a political institution which has never figured in any written constitution of
France, but which has had a remarkably durable existence for all that, is surely
appropriate. Especially so now, because many other institutions with which it
has associations, such as the Grands Corps de 1’Ptat (particularly the Council
of State and the Court of Accounts) and the Finance and other inspectorates, are
being more fully studied as well.’
The institution in question here is the ministerial cabinet (cabinet minister-
iel). This name is given to each group of official aides every member of the
Government appoints to his own use.2 At this very moment it would be difficult
to estimate the importance of these groups taken as a whole because their great-
est development has been associated not with an authoritarian regime but with
* Research for this article was done in Paris in 1956-57 when the author was on a Fulbright
scholarship.
1
There is a considerable amount of periodical literature both in French and English on various
aspects of the postwar civil service in France, but practically nothing in book form. Macridis
and Brown, in "The Study of Politics in France since the Liberation: a Critical Biography,"
APSR, September, 1957, pp. 825-26, indicate the curious aspect of this lack by pointing
out that "every informed Frenchman is inclined to believe that the civil service and the
great bureaucratic formations, such as the Inspecteurs des finances, govern France." Sources
for this paper, other than those cited specifically below, include: le Secrétariat Général du
Gouvernement (ed.), L’Organisation Gouvernementale, Administrative, et Judiciaire de la
France (Paris, 1952); René Cassin, "Recent Reforms in the Government and Administration
of France," Public Administration (London), Autumn, 1950, pp. 179-87; Peter Campbell,
"The French Civil Service," New Zealand Journal of Public Administration (Wellington),
September, 1955, pp. 36-52; Jacques Bing, "Le malaise dans la fonction publique," Esprit
(Paris), April and June, 1956, pp. 57-67 and 200-211; and T. Feyzioglu, "Reforms in the
Higher French Civil Service since 1945," Public Administration (London), Spring and
Summer, 1955, pp. 68-88 and 173-89; Georges Langrod, "The French Council of State:
Its Role in the Formulation and Implementation of Administrative Law," APSR, September,
1955, pp. 673-93. I am also indebted to a small group of French civil servants — mostly
members of the Council of State but serving in a variety of capacities outside of that
institution — who helped supply much of the information given here.
2
The term Cabinet ministériel is seldom translated into English because of possible confusion
with our usage of the word "cabinet" to denote the core ministers of the Government work-
ing collectively. In French the word cabinet usually refers to a body of the cabinet min-
stériel type, i.e., a small group of personal advisers to an official. But the constitution and
institutions of the Fourth Republic make it hard to escape difficulty with this terminology.
The 1946 Constitution uses the word cabinet to mean some, but apparently not all, of
the members of the Government. The French equivalent of the English Cabinet is really
the Council of Ministers, the only constitutional decision-making body within the ex-
ecutive, and for this reason one of the least interesting of such bodies. The Council of
Ministers was attended by all ministers by right, and often by the most important of the
433

---

434
the parliamentary system of the Fourth Republic.3 And it is with their operation
in this system that this article is largely concerned. Suffice it to say for the recent
status of the institution that, as Premier, De Gaulle seemed to use his own minis-
terial cabinet as a combination general staff and governmental secretariat, ap-
parently having substituted in this way his own personal aides for those provided
formerly by the Secrétariat General du Gouvernement, once the premier’s prim,
ary agency for ministerial co-ordination.4 At the same time it may be assumed
that the ministerial cabinets of the other members of the De Gaulle Government
had rather less to do than was the case for their predecessors before May 13,
1958. Nevertheless, should France re-establish some sort of plural executive -
which seems quite likely at this time -
it is certain that an institution of the
ministerial cabinet type will again have useful functions to perform in the process
by which executive decisions are reached.
Not only did the existence of a plural executive demand such an institution
but so did the constitutional theory of the republican and parliamentary regime.
For each member of the Government - or at least each holder of a portfolio -
played a dual role in the formation of policy. He had to be at one and the same
time the chief administrative officer of his department, and a political figure
directly responsible for his administration to parliament.5 The double task result-
ing therefrom -
of translating the demands of parliamentary support into spe-
cific legislative programs, and of giving these programs effective administrative
application -
required each minister to have at his disposal a source of expert
advice and support.
Finally, while the ministerial cabinets owed their existence partially to these
conditions, one other factor made them a vital adjunct to the operation of the
secretaries of state. But to add to the confusion some premiers also sometimes called
a meeting of still other members of the Government, this meeting being known formally
as the Council of the Cabinet. This Council included all ministers, all secretaries of state,
and occasionally some under-secretaries of state as well. In an attempt to obviate confusion
this article will use the terms "ministerial cabinet" and "cabinet" interchangeably to des-
ignate the group of personal advisers appointed by each member of the Government, mem-
bers of the Government meaning ministers, secretaries of state, and under-secretaries of
state. Then, rather inaccurately, it will use the term "minister" to cover all these ranks.
3
Since this was written I have received a letter from a well-informed French correspondent say-
ing, "Que d’innovations dans la composition et le fonctionnement des cabinets ministériels."
The reader will have to interpret this tantalizing bit of information as best he may.
4
There is some evidence that M. Georges Pompidou, Premier de Gaulle’s directeur de cabinet,
took over some if not all of the functions once performed by M. André Ségalat, the
Secretary General of the Government under the Fourth Republic. On M. Ségalat’s role, and
on that of his organization, see inter alia Roy C. Macridis, "The Cabinet Secretariat in
France," Journal of Politics, November, 1951, pp. 589-603, and my unpublished doctoral
dissertation "Executive Organization and Administrative Practice in the IVth Republic of
France" (Stanford University, 1958), chaps. ii and iv, passim.
5
On the face of it the De Gaulle constitution will change this feature of the French parlia-
mentary tradition by obliging members of the legislature to resign from their chambers
when appointed to posts in the Government. Whether this device will actually be used to
reduce parliamentary influence over the administration is yet to be determined by the
operation of the new regime. The fact that Premier Debré seeks the approval of the new
National Assembly for his programs would seem to go somewhat on the way of restoring the
old practice.

---

435
French parliamentary system - the factor of executive instability.6 The minis-
terial cabinets of today significantly trace their lineage back to the last decades
of the ancien r~gime, the very period when ministerial instability became a prom-
inent feature of French political life. And this continuing instability has provided
an excellent soil for the growth and evolution of the institution.
The early history of the ministerial cabinets is revealing. They began as an
administrative device of the ancien r~gime by which each of the king’s ministers
appointed at will a group of private secretaries. These secretaries studied matters
of interest to the patron whom they served, prepared dossiers, received those
soliciting information and favors, and carried out a variety of missions in which
discretion and secrecy were the most common ingredients. Whether these sec-
retaries were chosen from among the younger sons of the nobility or not their
service with a minister provided them with an administrative training very use-
ful to a fruitful career in royal service.
Similarly, men who had passed through the cabinets of both Napoleons
constituted an important reserve of talent from which was chosen a fair propor-
tion of all prefectoral and diplomatic administrators. Indeed, until the...