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Civil service employment and its official legal status in France stem from historical developments in which the interrelationship between different actors has constantly alternated between applying a specific body of law to civil servants and bringing them into line with employees in the private sector. Economic change requires a new approach, but this does not necessarily mean that the official status has to be reformed. Reform traditionally depends on the outcome of struggles between the political class and the civil service on the one hand, and the various occupational groups comprising the civil service on the other hand. There are two central issues in this debate, which are as old as the French Republic itself : the first is to know who should represent the continuity of the state, and the second is to determine how senior civil servants can be distinguished from the great majority of other civil service employees.