The French Prefectorial Corps 1814-1830

by Nicholas Richardson

Overview

The French Prefectoral Corps was Napoleon's creation. Building on the framework of local government inherited from the Revolution, he installed a rigidly centralized administrative system, running from the Sub-Prefect in the arrondissement, through the Prefect in the department, to the Minister in Paris. The return of the Bourbons threatened this organization. There was the upheaval of the years 1814–15, and as the mechanics of parliamentary government evolved in the years after the Second Restoration, the Corps acquired a political importance which necessarily affected the prefectoral career. There was also a change in rectruitment. To staff this indispensable organ of government the Bourbons called on men of their own choice and service, in particular members of the pre-revolutionary nobility. Dr Richardson has analysed the history of the Prefectoral Corps during the sixteen years of the Restoration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521089050
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/30/2008
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Part 1. The Prefects: 1. Prefects, sub-prefects and secretaries-general; 2. The choice of prefects; 3. The prefects in an age of crisis 1814–15; 4. The prefects 1815–30; Part II. The Subordinate Personnel: 5. Local recruitment and difficulties; 6. The choice of subordinate personnel; 7. The movement of subordinate personnel 1814–16; 8. The subordinate personnel 1816–30; Part III. The Prefectoral Career: 9. Introductory: politics and administration; 10. The prefects: promotion and the makeshift of hierarchy; 11. The prefects: the outline of the career; 12. The prefects: salaries, allowances, incomes; 13. The subordinate personnel; 14. The subordinate personnel: salaries, allowances, incomes; Part IV: 15. The nobility and the prefectoral corps.