Esprit fonctionnaire

Is this the end of the era of the esprit fonctionnaire? By Jane T. Tolbert

I have no official statistics on which to base my claims, no studies issued by French research groups like the CNRS or the INSEE, but the French civil servants—at least in the South of France--have become more courteous in their dealings with the public.

For many years, the fonctionnaires—whether a postal clerk or a Prefecture official-- responded to most questions by throwing up their hands as if to brush away an unpleasantness and scowling: “Just what do you expect me to do!” The slamming of a counter window, or the uttering of, “Suivant,” to the next in line, brought an end to any inquiry. The more fortunate members of the public were given a list of documents (la paperesse) to be included in the dossier. Most dossiers required three identity photographs (that met certain administrative requirements), family genealogy contained in the thin blue livret de famille, which no one had seen since the birth of the last child, the three most recent salary statements (particularly problematic if unemployed), and bills from the utility companies that indicated a street address. Since many documents had to be obtained during official business hours (between 9h – 12h and 14h-16h) outside of periods of national or religious holidays, and strikes, the completion of the dossier became a type of personal mission. For the public, it seemed these mean-spirited civil servants took extreme pleasure in forcing people to miss a half day of work to obtain the documents. Often additional papers—not included on the list—were required.

This negative spirit, esprit fonctionnaire, gave rise to the ingeneous système D, or “do-it-yourself-ism,” which consisted of bending the rules. If authorities did not give permission to build your house, you built it anyway, disguising the walls under tarps or behind planters of large trees. After five years, you could not be forced to tear it down by any fonctionnaire. If the national employment agency did not help you locate a job, you worked on the black market while receiving an unemployment pension. For years, this système D was a type of game, pitting ordinary citizens against petty bureaucrats. Although the système D still remains part of the culture as do bistros and the PMU, the attitude of French bureaucrats has changed. They no longer throw up their hands and slam the glass windows closed. Instead, they smile, ridicule the amount of useless paperwork the government requires, and propose solutions.

Will the concept of esprit fonctionnaire be relegated to history books? If so, what will become of the système D that seemed to evolve in response? Is this phenomenon only experienced in the South? Once I finish locating the papers for my own dossier, I plan to investigate this question.

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