Local Politics in Centralized Systems: the Case of French Education

This article reports on a research project on local educational politics in France, particularly on relations between the bureaucracy and the teachers’ unions. Three principal conclusions are reached. First, the local bureaucracy does not succeed in insulating itself from the political environment, nor does it seek to do so. Although curriculum decisions remain highly centralized, there has been sufficient administrative deconcentration to make lively local politics possible. Second, Communist control of the primary‐school teachers’ union does not restrict communication between union and local bureaucracy. Nor does it prevent the effective representation of individuals and groups. But it does make bureaucracy/union relations more formal than they are in other departments, and it does break down the clear barrier which exists elsewhere between the professional and the bureaucrat, through the creation of a coalition of teachers, parents and sympathetic local politicians. Third, the unions constrain administrative action more effectively at the departmental than at the regional level. This contrast is explained mainly in terms of the different responsibilities of departmental and regional authorities in education.