République et archives
By: DUCLERT, Vincent
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ArticlePublisher: Paris : ENA, avr./jui. 2002Revue Française d'Administration Publique 102, p. 269-276Abstract: The French Revolution made archives and policy concerning them a major building block in the construction of a modern State and in the elaboration of democratic citizenship. When the National Archives were established in 1790, the National Assembly defined the institutions political aspect : to serve public servants and citizens, to guarantee individual liberties as well as national memory and the modernity of the State. Yet the history of the National Archives is characterized above all by disinterest on the part of both public representatives and officials, and the consequences of this extend far beyond the sphere of action of the institution itself : by neglecting the Archives, those in charge of public policy deprive themselves of one of the major tools of modernization, democratization, and representation. This is the lesson to be learned from observing the rare moments in the history of the French republic when political intent determined archive policy : at the turn of the 20th century, during the Front Populaire, and during the 1950s. It is also a lesson which gives insight into the structural crisis of French Archives since the 1980s, or even since 1959 and the birth of the Fifth Republic, for it is a crisis not unrelated to democratic doubting, and to contemporary historys difficulty in accepting its social role.
The French Revolution made archives and policy concerning them a major building block in the construction of a modern State and in the elaboration of democratic citizenship. When the National Archives were established in 1790, the National Assembly defined the institutions political aspect : to serve public servants and citizens, to guarantee individual liberties as well as national memory and the modernity of the State. Yet the history of the National Archives is characterized above all by disinterest on the part of both public representatives and officials, and the consequences of this extend far beyond the sphere of action of the institution itself : by neglecting the Archives, those in charge of public policy deprive themselves of one of the major tools of modernization, democratization, and representation. This is the lesson to be learned from observing the rare moments in the history of the French republic when political intent determined archive policy : at the turn of the 20th century, during the Front Populaire, and during the 1950s. It is also a lesson which gives insight into the structural crisis of French Archives since the 1980s, or even since 1959 and the birth of the Fifth Republic, for it is a crisis not unrelated to democratic doubting, and to contemporary historys difficulty in accepting its social role.
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