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Prefects, Governors and Commissioners pp 147–166Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

A Profession or a Position? Recruitments and Careers of the Territorial Representatives of the State in Nowadays Europe

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Abstract

This chapter examines the careers of the territorial representatives of the State. By analysing their trajectories, we identify three ideal-types. The first is the ‘career prefect’, who follows standardized, codified career paths marked out by expected professionalism. In France, Italy, Romania or Turkey, they even belong to an administrative ‘corps’, with its specific traditions and social codes. In such cases, the prefectoral career is similar to a system where the prefectoral esprit de corps normalizes the life of/in the prefectoral institution. The second ideal-type is the ‘functional prefect’, to be found in federal countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland) where territorial administrators do not represent the Nation-State but the federated entities and have a low-profile role. Accessing that position comes after a long administrative or political career, the ‘socio-political capillarity’ of the candidates playing a major role (municipal or provincial political experience; responsibilities in parties and unions, etc.). The third ideal-type is the ‘dignified prefect’, to be found in Nordic countries: the office-holders access to the dignity/position of county governors as a result of a national (not local) political career, rewarded by their appointment as governors entrusted with an intense and non-partisan mission of incarnation, compromise facilitator and go-between.

Keywords

  • Prefectoral career
  • Europe
  • Sociology of the professions
  • Senior civil service
  • Political and administrative elites
  • Ideal-type

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All original citations that were in French have been translated into English.

  2. 2.

    Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties (Ministry of the Interior and Home Relations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) et Ministerie van Algemene Zaken (Ministry of General Affairs).

  3. 3.

    Ministerio de Politíca Territorial y Función Pública (Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service).

  4. 4.

    This is the case, for example, in the Canton of Valais, which, in its draft constitution tabled in 2012 and rejected by popular vote in 2015, proposed to remove the districts and prefects in the Canton.

  5. 5.

    Understood here in a broad sense, that is to say not only serving as ministers, but also in their entourages (special advisors and Chiefs-of-Staff). For an analysis of the ministerial worlds, see Eymeri-Douzans et al. (2015).

  6. 6.

    We are adapting here the expression that the author uses: the “bureaucracy of honors”.

  7. 7.

    In spite of many specificities exposed in the following country chapters to this opus, the daily work of these high territorial administrators obliges and empowers them to handle a crisscrossing of missions: embodiment of the State (protocol authority), promotion of the rule of law and legal control over the acts taken by provincial/local authorities, maintenance of security and public order, crisis management, administrative police, implementation of national and European public policies, territorial planning, relationship with local politicians, …

  8. 8.

    This is the case, apart from the well-known case of the French ENA, of the Italian Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione [SNA], which recruits and trains senior officials, including future prefects. Inspired from the ENA, placed under the authority of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the SNA follows its operating and selection procedure, via an entrance examination, with a very high level of selectivity. In 2012, out of 10,000 initial candidates, and 4,000 students finally turning up for the concours, only 26 were selected. Out of these 26 students that were trained—for a budget of 21 Million Euros—only nine obtained an appointment within the Civil Service. In September 2018, the last call for applications for the entrance examination opened more than 140 places.

  9. 9.

    Even if we have integrated (cf. supra) these States into the model of career prefects insofar as their professional trajectories fit in with many aspects of the career principle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Group for Public Administration, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans

  2. Sciences Po Toulouse-LaSSP, Toulouse, France

    Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans

  3. Sciences Po Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Gildas Tanguy

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  1. Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans
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  2. Gildas Tanguy
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Correspondence to Gildas Tanguy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sciences Po Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Dr. Gildas Tanguy

  2. European Group for Public Administration, Brussels, Belgium

    Prof. Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans

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Eymeri-Douzans, JM., Tanguy, G. (2021). A Profession or a Position? Recruitments and Careers of the Territorial Representatives of the State in Nowadays Europe. In: Tanguy, G., Eymeri-Douzans, JM. (eds) Prefects, Governors and Commissioners. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59396-4_7

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