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This article examines the emergence of new forms of centralization of the policy process in France, drawing on an analysis of the policies “for excellence” in higher education and research introduced by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009. Discussing jointly the theses on the “executive shift” and on the development of “steering at a distance” instruments in the government of public policies, this article demonstrates how a sectoral “programmatic elite” has managed to serve its own agenda by redefining “excellence” in accordance with a preexisting project of institutional reform through the grouping of institutions. Rather than radically transforming the traditional Napoleonic paradigm, policies “for excellence” appear to represent a gradual process of rationalization in higher education and research, characterized by a strengthening of ministerial abilities to govern the sector.