L’après-débâcle: le moment opportun pour refonder les élites? Réflexions et acteurs autour des créations de Sciences Po et de l’ENA

The Débâcle. The term immediately brings to mind two key moments in contemporary French military and political history: September 1870 and June 1940, dates that frame the longest of the parliamentary republics. Against a backdrop of invasion and occupation, and institutional crisis, the debacle also served as a springboard for the elites to question the training and recruitment of administrative and political leaders.

The creation of the École libre des Sciences politiques in 1872 and the École nationale d’administration in 1945 were responses to this anxiety about decline and the desire to renew the pool and intellectual framework of leaders. Starting from an analysis of the reasons for defeat and national collapse, this study revisits the actors of these transformations, the project leaders Émile Boutmy and Michel Debré, their influences and their entourages, networks and relays.