FRENCH POLITICAL THOUGHT
enough, salvaged and given fresh life by some of the very
people on whom the present system would seem to rest, the
fonctionnaires or Civil Servants.1
Administrative Syndicalism is historically quite distinct
from Revolutionary or working-class Syndicalism; it is also
much more limited in its original aims, being at first nothing
more than " a revolt of State employees against the favouritism
that was rampant in all public administrative services." 2 The
elaborate regulations concerning appointments and promotions
were perpetually violated, sometimes flagrantly, more usually
by "ingenious frauds designed to circumvent the legal obstacles
placed in the way of irregular appointments."3 The only way
of effective revolt was by combination, and hence arose Syn-
dicats de Fonctionnaires formed not for the obtention of any
material advantages, higher salaries or shorter hours, but for
the defence of legal status against the perpetual inroads of
political influence—" des associations de defense mutuelle
contre les m^faits de la politique," as Professor Hauriou calls
them. This involves not merely new legislation, if any at all,
but the immediate control by the association of the acts of
the higher officials, thus guaranteeing these against external
political pressure ; it must-involve not merely a right of appeal
to some such court as the Conseil d'Etat, but a real sharing of
discipline and promotion, in a word, of sovereign authority.
Many go further and claim the autonomy of the whole admini-
strative permanent staff from the transient political staff of
which the minister is the head. They want, says M, Leroy,
quoting a manifesto of elementary teachers,4 " to form the
1 The chief source is to be found in the books of M. Maxime Leroy,
especially Le Droit des Fonctionnaires (1904), Les Transformations de la Puis-
sance publique (1907), La Loi, Essai sur la Thtorie de PAutorite dans la
D/mocratie (1909), Syndic ats et Services publics (1910), La Coutume ouvriere
(1913), Les Techniques nouvelles du Syndicalisme (1921). See also Paul-
Boncour's Fedlralisme Iconomique (1906), and a very full treatment in Las Id's
Authority in the Modern State > chap. v.
2 Jubineau, Vldte du Fedtralisme Iconomique dans le Socialisme franfais
(1912). p. 141.
8 Leroy, Transformations, p. 105.
4 Ibid., p. 262. It must be remembered that all elementary teachers are
Civil Servants. "Nous r^clamons, dit-il, nous demandons tout d'abord
466