01465pab a2200145 454500008004000000100001900040245015300059260000900212300001500221362000800236520097800244650002701222650001801249773005201267180718b2010   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aGervais, Julie  aMerging to survive? Institutional legitimacy and material considerations in the light of the reorganization of corps within the French civil service  c2010  ap.425-441.  aSep  aThe article sets out to examine the mergers of corps of top technical civil servants in France from two angles: their institutional and material dimensions. Its findings are based on archive material relating to the negotiations that marked the reform processes and on interviews with the protagonists of the reform within the ministries, cabinets, professional associations and trade unions of the corps in question. Rather than consider the top civil servants simply as the instruments of change, affected (or otherwise) by it, or even as obstacles to the reforms under examination, the article looks at their capacity to take action , to defend their interests and their long-term survival. One of the central questions raised by this study into the mergers is whether they make it possible to maintain and reproduce the models of domination of the great corps on the machinery of government. Continuity in and through change is at the heart of the debate. - Reproduced.  aCivil service - France  aCivil service  aInternational Review of Administrative Sciences