Word: crozier
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Surprisingly, Crozier is optimistic about the future of France despite the apparent lack of change following the turmoil of May-June, 1968. He is willing to speculate that "we are at the end of the old system" because of "the loss of faith by the people at the top." When this loss of faith eventually filters down to the lower echelons, change will become mandatory...
...Crozier suggests at least two reforms to help France create "a social system where people can be free." The first is the decentralization of government decision-making into regional assemblies in order to replace the confused patterns of centralized authority and to increase citizen participation. "Decision making was more rational in 1900 than it is today in France." In a recent study of how the decision was made to extend the Paris Metro, Crozier was amazed to discover that the Ministry of Finance had no idea of who initiated the plan and how the decision was taken. In terms...
...second reform is to eliminate France's system of Grandes Ecoles (which Crozier labels "the most elitist system in the world") by incorporating them into the broader university system. The Grandes Ecoles have changed little since the 19th century. L'Ecole Nationale d'Administration (l'ENA), a kind of super Harvard Business School, graduated 250 students in 1880. In 1960 it graduated...
...Grandes Ecoles continue to train their students in a severely traditional mode. Because their graduates hold a virtual monopoly on top government jobs. Crozier points out that it is "absolutely impossible to recruit any new specialists." In the future recruitment must come from a much broader spectrum of the populations...
...CROZIER'S belief that "we must change the system from the top" conflicts with the pet theories of most of his French colleagues who being much further left, glorify the role of worker and trade unions. But he does not "take very seriously" his image as the American sociologist in France. "I don't have any kind of complex." Instead Crozier muses on the ambivalence of his French colleagues-they bemoan American sociology as "so awful, horrible, and the chaining of the human race" precisely because "they believe it's so good...