The Role of Intellectuals in the Construction of Public Policies: The Example of the Educational Reform of Vichy

This paper aims to show how intellectuals can contribute to the imposition and the justification of a particular social order through their participation in the construction of a public policy. From the example of the educational reform of Vichy, we show the role played by some intellectuals in the definition of a "school problem" and in the prescription and the implementation of solutions to solve it.

Some of conservative intellectuals (academics, writers, journalists) assembled in networks (circles, leagues, associations) struggle, in the interwar period, against the republican school and its ideals. A relatively unified discourse about the problem of the school appears, transmitted by significant resources (specialized and mainstream publications, public meetings, etc.): the established educational institution would promote the moral decadence of society (I). In 1940, the emphasis of this "school problem" by Petain and other high-ranking military officers, members of the same groups which were marginalized under the Third Republic, give them a window of opportunity to contribute directly to the reforms (II). The seven ministers of Education under Vichy and their collaborators come from these networks and will do public policies inspired by the solutions suggested before the war (make the school a nationalist, elitist and religious institution), even if internal contradictions in the conservative group will appear (III).