Contribution à l’étude du recrutement des écoles d’Officiers de la Marine (1945-1960)
Résumé
An examination of empirical data collected from student officers of the French Navy has led the authors
to define the concept of « traditional family » on the basis of the following indicators : father's profession,
size of the family of origin, status (public or private) of the schools attended. The combination of these
three variables gives a typology of eight types. The type corresponding to the « traditional family » is
constituted by student officers whose father is either a military career man, or of a high socio-economic
status, belonging to a family of at least four children, and who has attended private schools. This type
would furnish the main recruitment for the Ecole Navale which forms deck-officers. At the other extreme,
the type constituting a sort of « negative » of the traditional family seems to provide an important
proportion of the recruits for the school of mechanical engineers. Traditional recruitment appears to
have increased between 1945 and 1960, officer and engineer graduates seem to have rather « military
» motivations, whereas the opposite type of students would rather have technical motivations.
Le développement de la société industrielle et l'évolution de la conduite des guerres modernes ont provoqué dans la société militaire contemporaine de profonds bouleversements, dont les conséquences sur le recrutement des cadres de carrière n'ont pas toujours pu être exactement mesurées. On pourrait sans doute faire l'hypothèse que, dans la mesure où un conflit futur ferait davantage appel à la qualification technique qu'à l'héroïsme individuel, le métier des armes tendrait à perdre sa spécificité et à devenir une profession parmi d'autres. [Premier paragraphe]