{"title":"The Napoleonic Tradition","authors":"B. Peters","doi":"10.1108/09513550810855627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810855627","url":null,"abstract":"Some features of the administrative system in France predate Napoleon and his framing of the French state. But the Napoleonic model of the state remains a crucial means of understanding public administration in France. For example, the emphasis on law as the foundation of administration and of accountability can be seen as Napoleonic. Likewise, although the French state has become more decentralized, the emphasis on uniformity and control from Paris still survives to some extent. That centralization also is related to the relatively weak connections of the French state with social actors, especially when compared to other European countries. As well as serving as the foundation for French administration the Napoleonic model has been dispersed to other countries in Europe such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. The legal foundations of the Napoleonic tradition have made it resistant to many contemporary reforms in the public sector, notably those based on New Public Management.","PeriodicalId":208262,"journal":{"name":"Administrative Traditions","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128107038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}