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Emulation through Decoration : A Science of Government?
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Olivier Ihl University of Grenoble
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The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. The Jacobin legacy in Modern France
Essays in Honour of Vincent Wright
Edited by Sudhir Hazareesingh
Vincent Wright 1937- 1999
OXFORD UN IVERS ITY PRESS CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors ix
1. Vincent Wright and the Jacobin Legacy in Historical and Theoretical Perspectives Surfltir Hazareesingh
2. 'La Guerre Sainte': Debates about Just War among Republicans in the Nineteenth Century Karma Nabulsi 21
J. 'Honorable and Honoured Citizen s': War Veterans of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras under the Second Empire Sudhi,. Hazareesingh 4S
4. The Prefect, Politica! Functionary of the Jacobin State: Permanences and Continuities (1870-1914) Jean-Pierre Machelon 68 5. Fraternity, Solidarity, Sociability: the Grass Roots of the Grancl Orient cie France (1900-1926) Maurice Larkin 89
6. Reform, Conservation, and Adaptation: Sciences-Po, fram the Popu!ar Front to the Liberation Philip Nord 1 15
7. General de Gaulle and the Restoration of the Republic DOl/glas fohnsO/l 14 7
R. Emu lation Through Decoration: A Science of Government? Olivier lhl 158
9. The Republic and its Territory: The Persistence and the Adaptation of Founcling Myths Yves Mény 183
10. Making Citizens in an Increasingly Complex Soc iety: Jacobinisll1 Revisited Dom illique ScJ mapper 196
IIppenclix: The Works of Vi ncent Wright 2 17
Index 227 8
Emulation through Decoration: A Science of Government ?
OLIVIER IHL
F we include the Croix de Guerre of the Fifst and Second World Wars, the I official number of French men and wamen who have been awarded deco rations and are 'presumed alive' i5 estimated at avec 2 million. How is this hon ours table made up?The Légion d'honneur has more than 200,000 honorands, the Compagnons de la Libération just under 1,000 members, including five lowns and 18 regiments. There are Qvec 560,000 holders of the médaille mili taire and 130,000 of the Ordre du Mérite, to say !lathing of the swelling bat talions af t he Mérite Agricole, the Croix de Guerre, or the Palmes académiques. Just one look at these figures i5 enough to confer upon thesc modest emblems the status of a systematic instrument of governance.
A Behaviour Police
Yet the deference accordcd to such honours has been bitterly condemned ovec Ume, in a salvo of criticism fo r which Montesquieu vigorously opened the way. If you wish to form an opinion as ta the nature of a government, he sug gested to his readers, consider carefully how it rewards people. You will obscrve Ihat, under a despotic regîme, the moral value of the people is reduced to a material one: the prince 'can only offer money'. In a monarchy, on the other hand, honour encourages a cult of 'distinctions and preferences'. Dispensed by the sovcrelgn, these can certainly lead to fortune, but that is not what they are esscntially about. However, in a rcpublic, distinctions of honour are purely symbolic. Awarded by the whole of SOCiety, they serve ta sanction a virtue that is supposed to be sufftcient unto itself. And the model for this? The use that ancient Rome made of rewards of honour, that is to say, simple wreaths of laurel or oak which were worn as a sign of civil or mililary distinc tion. However, even under these last n'la regimes the use of such an expedient is for Montesquieu a sign of decadence. lt is 50 in a monarchy because the bait of material advantage ultlmately perverts everylhing, including Ihe sense of Emulation through Decoration 159 dignity, and it is so in a republic because the distinction of belng a citizen should be virtue's sole rewardl-which implies that in reality truc nobility is that of the soul and can be inherited only though education. Ouring the French Revolution, Mirabeau came to much the sa me conclu sion. In protest against the creation in the young American republic of the Cincinnatus Society, a new patrician body that was threatening ta tum itself loto a hereditary aristocracy, he wrote a virulent pamphlet. Aoodyoe, this badge of honour by means of wllich people sought recognition and distinc tion? Inoffensive, this medal in the fo rm of an eagle borne on a blue ribbon and surmounted by an inscription alluding ta the health of the republic? Quite the contrary. This was a frightening emblem, the weapon of an oli garchy aspiring to the privileges of nobility. Such, in his view, is the fatal power of 'opinion and petty human passions': 'the mos! frivolous symbols have played their part in tightening the chains that bind the people, have ennobled the powerful and, by enabling them ta afford ta be waited upon by the poor, have increased the servitude of the poor'. Is it not the case that to cavet a reward is in sorne way ta relinquish ta others one's own means of deftnlng oneself? And, for the sovereign, a means of gaining power over the course of a human Iife? After ail, those people who have been decorated become exemplars only through the sharc of power thal Ihey receive: that is to say, through the vîsibîlity conferred upon them by the sign that they wear and, consequently, tluough the respect that results from this. Whilst the dec oration provides visible proof of an action of sufflcient grandeu r as to be WOf thy of recompense, it is above ail a manifestation of the power of the persan awarding it. Ils value is ta be assessed in terms of a desire for power. This is why Mirabeau declares: 'The greatest of rewards lies in the esteem of one's (el1aw countrymen, for this is deserved and not exacted; the most glittering of deco rations is a virtue which can be seen for itself, and the most noble of charters is thal of a member of a collectivity which one has had the good fortune to enlighten though reason.'Z The warning did not fall upon deaf ears. For the French revolutionaries, Ihere could be no worse manifestation of tyranny than the unbridled com merce in ri bbons and distinctions. Not only did it stand in contradiction to the principle of equality but it had, moreover, 10st its pur pose with the demise of the nobility. The Constituent Assembly, convinced of just how noxious the custom was, abolished its essential mechanisms. This was the agenda of the cclebrated session of 17 June 1790, which was devoted to 'sigos dcnoting feu dalism'. From monarchie protocol to titles of nobility and from orders of chivalry to diplomatie ceremonial, a whole gamut of distinctions was
, Montesquieu, IH l'Esprit d~· lois, ln ()nJvrt:'l compl~tes, ü., pre5entl'd and annOlat ..-d by !{oger Caillois (l'arls, 19S1). 302. The same assertion is \0 be found in a number of other writings, includ Ing those of François de Neufchâll'au, Charles Duclos, and Sébastien Merder. as weil as ln l 'Essai sur le mi r/ft n III vtrlu puhlished by DiderOI ln t NS. 2 Comle de Mirabeau, Opinion
l Artlcl~ 1 of lhe decree of 19 June! 790 stipulalC'5 that: 'The rlghl 10 hereditary nobillly ha~ lx:cn aboHshed foreve!; ronsequently, thc IllIes of pri"a, dm:, romte, murqllis, "'Drllre, /Jarou. ChC1TI/itT, mes· sifl', fcllyt'l", rlQhle, and ail other $lml1ar tltle5 will ncither be taken hy nor Jccorded ta anyone.' • On the ronlroversy sp3rk,·d offby lhi .~ 'dcmocrJtization of h0l1ou15', sel' William M. Kcddy, n ie Ill\'i$ihle Ccxl~. UO/IOll' und Scntime/lt i,/I'oSIT('V()IHtiouary Frima, ISI~1848 (Berkeley, 1997),6. 5 friedr1ch Melchior Grimm (baron de), ClWTeSpfJlldmta, IV. (1764). 11. Clted by Emile Littré ln thc ('nlt)' 'Burducrallc' of the Victiomm/,... From Honour to Honours In tht! Middle Ages, the orders of chlvalry had a precise significancc. Created by the nobles themselves, among them Boucicaut when he returned from his expedition against the Turks in 1400 and foundcd the order of the Dame blanche à l'écu vert,'" they \Ye re based upon peer recognition. Above aH, thejr purpose was la ensure that Christians were prolected. Released from ail depen dencc by the popcs, as was the case for the ordt!rs of Saint-Sépulchre and Saint Jean de Jérusalem, they admitted only the cream of the nobility. Indeed, their grand masters had no hesitation in considcring themselves the equals of their sovereigns. Their Illembers had taken vows of poverty and chastity, thus giv ing the nobility a reason to 'm akI.' a profession of honour' and enabling it ta perpetuate its indcpendence in the mme of a model of excellence embodied by the gentleman warrior. For earHer European noble lineages, dutY was-and this must be stressed-something which was bound up in divine will. Although its ultimate meaning was Incomprehensible, it was, and continued to be, recognizable as a means of putting a statc of grace ta the test: this was the meaning of chivalrous 'prowess' or the 'sacrifice' on the part of the wac rior. Sustained as it was by the fact of belonging ta a group of noble Hneage, this extemal conscience enjoined the knight ta 'go out in quest of honaur' or, al the very least, not ta allow himself to be humiliated or demeancd-'the pOint of honour'. Now this 'mark of consideration'-Lucien Febvre- this 'prejudice of persan and condition'-Montesquieu- were gradually tumed to their own advantage by the sovereigns of the first modern states in order to ensure the loyalty of the highest in their kî.ngdoms. Louis XI was the fmt monarch to makI.' use of the morality of feudal honaur when in 1469 he created the order of Saint-Michel, thanks ta which he was able ta secure the deference of the high-ranking nobil lty. Henri Il created the arder of the Sainl-Esprit, wllich transformed the knlghts into 'Knights of the Order of the King'. But it was, above ail, Louis XIV who in 1692, with the arder of Saint-Louis, turned this supreme and uncon ditional value into the mainspring of the monarchie administration.7 TIle order, which was open ta those commoners who had rendered outstanding service as officers and were practising CathOlics, associated marks of hanaur with substantiaJ incomes.K So what purpose did il serve? To turn the respect ~ 'White lady with Ihe gree n shlcld.' , The l'did wllich InsUtured this military order ofwhlch th ~ King dl'Claroo himself lead~r and S(JV crclgn grand lIldsterbcglm wlth the words: 'fhe offiœ rs lcadingourtroops ha ve distlnguishl'd them_ selves b)' so many outStanding aCh of m~nt and courage III these victo rle$ ami co n'lu ~ tS wjth ' .. hlch it has pleased God to bien the lustlœ of Ihe causes in ,,,hîch we haw borne amIS, that ordinary rewards arc inadl'quale to e1CplCn our aHl-ction and the gratHude we ft:eI for thelr servicl'S, and wc rel! ollTsclws 10 be lIndcr an obligation 10 !.t'el.: out ncw mUn5 of reçompensing thelr zcal and loy. ait y.' Clted in Abl* Ilocqulllon, DI~wurs sur l'insrUIl/lolI df l'ordre mi!it"iTl' dl' SIIÎIII·LoIÛS (Parh, \694), 6. For a general pr~s"mation of the cohorts and tlte functlolling of the cquc s trl~n royal order, ~ c c Ah.'1Carrdrc Maz..a~ , 1fjsroire de l'on/ft' tara/ et militaire de Sailll·/.ouis, 3 vols. (Paris, 1860-1). ~ The rcligious re~trlctlorr dl5appcarl'd, howc\'er, wherr Louis xv O"eated Ihe mlUtary order of merl! for Prolesta.1l1 offiœ rs ln 17S9. , 62 Olivier Ihl accorded to the pyramidal structure of lines of descent and mîlîtary ranks to the service of the Crown. Le t us not forget that, fram the beglnning of the sev enteenth century, the monarch's jurists had becn striving towards using the bond of deference as a means of maintaining social harmony: Tt is a necessary impcrativt:! that SOllle co rnmand and olhers ohey. Amongst those who command, there are several orders. ranks, and degrees and those who abey them arc agal n separated ioto several eIders and ran ks. Thus, by means of these multiple divisions and subdivisions, il general arder 15 created out of several orders, so that, in the end, Ihrough the power of order, a massive numlx-r becOlues one.9 The range of ceremonial arrangements to which the Crown had recourse serves as an indication of the extent to which thls segmentation was used as an instrument of State. The superiority of the rulers over the people was cause for celebration, as was that of the kingdom over ib neighbours, of the great and the good over the common people, but over and above evel}'1:hing else the proclaimed sl1peri ority of a king, who was unique in his eminence. Sancti&ed as the pures! farm of majesty because the most absolute, royal power could daim to be omnipotent. Jt was thenceforth embodied ln a figure who, in keep ing with his unequalled rank, both dominatcd and gave ultimate distinction to the entire pyrarnM of men of distinction. In the words of the legal adviser, Guy Coquille: 'The royal majesly of the king is withoul equal.' Ta this prin ciple of supremacy the theory of 'royal blood'-'the best, the most pious, the surest blood in the world', according to Jean de Rély-brought the guarantee of hereditary transmission. ln fac t, in the same way as the Church, through the religîous formalities of investiture, had i.mposed upoo the vassals the obligation ta defend it, the sov ereigo imposed through the oath of allegiance the obligation to proteet the security of his crown. This shattered the traditional model of the flobilitas. 10 Stripped of its prerogatives and deprived of its legal and customary responsi bili ties, first in England and France then, after the First World War, in the rest of Europe, the nobility lost its role as the governing c1ass and became no more than a dominant c1ass, and then a mere citadel of inOuence. In France, the nobility, which had been abolished as a dass in 1790, never reappeared. It is true that nobles were reinstated with the Restoration, and more Ilt!es were crc aled with the July Monarchy as weil as the two Bonaparlist Empires; but, for ail the regimes of the nineteenth century, nobilîty was no more than an hon orary distinction attached to a name. Moreover, the member of the Legislative Corps who put forward the bill of May 1858 aimed at stopping the abuse and usurpation of titles affumed this point from the assembly platform: We are unanimous in consldering Ihat today in France Ilobility cannot be anything other than an IlOuomT}' disliuctiou, devoid of any privHege and that it must no longer have associated with it any Idea of diffl'rence of race or of caste. In order that there • Charll'S Loyseau, Cluq livres III! droil dcsofficcs, l. ( P ari~, 1613),60. lU On the lloojlîlils Ihal was born out of the hcritage of anUquity. ~l'e Karl Fl'rcll nand Werner, N"jssm'Ç( df la /lob/eue. L'essor dl's ,Wr" {IOllfÙI" ~ /!II E"mpc (Paris, 1998). Emulation through Decoration 163 should be no possible doubt about this, wc have had the word IIvbility removeO from the text of the bi!l and replaced il with honorary ilisriIJer/OIl, whlch is in OUT vÎew the true delinition.ll Th us, if it is the case that nowadays distinctions are founded upon a fiction of en noblement, this has ocrurred through the fo rce of history. Moreover, the way in which their status has evolved reflects this. Up to the seventeenth cen tury, the title was only of minor importance-apart {rom that of dl/c, which was recognized and protected by law-as the only thing that counted was how far back in time the line went. Then, under the effect of the 'curialization' of social elites and the competition opcned up by the affirmation of the bour geoisie, those who were ennobled decked themselves out with grandiloquent tltles. In this way the right to nobility was transformed into a right to titlcs which bc-came the monopoly of the sovereigns. The movement gained rnomentum in the nineteenth century with the development of new forms of titled nobility and then the increase in the number of purely life honours, which were formally open to ail . This was the cra in which the meaning of dis tinctions, having broken away from the patriarchal logic of court society, bccame autonomous. Standardized, multiplied, and delegated, it \'Vas 10 serve 10 amalgamate withîn a new hierarchy the old nobility with the new, Ihe aris tocracy with the common people, the represenlatives of civil society with the officers of the armed forces. In truth, with the advent of monarchical power and the development of parliamentarianism, heroic grandeur was no longer deduced from a morality of self-sacrifice or heroic deeds, a morality by rneans of which the nobilîty had in former times been able to cali upon public recog nition or upon its own conscience. From this time on, il \'Vas founded upon signs of esteem delivered as a reward for virtues which had been certified by State administrations. The society of honour had just given \'Vay to the bureau cmey of honours. A Deference of State Let us not forget that in c1assical theory, majesty- mlliest(ls-is that presence Ihat gives shape and fOTm to the superiority of a governing power. IZ Now, we have seen that, from the end of the sixteenth century, monarchie absolutism put this manner of dramatizing appearances at the service of the exclusive pre eminence of the king, with the result that, in the writings of the jurists, sov ereignty itself was declared as being the plenitude of a power unhampered by tutelage and wi thout !intit of time. Sinœ it is not sim ply given over for lem porary keeping, it can be exercised without exception over any person, as over any thing, coming within the jurisdictlon ofwhat was cal led, trom the time of Henri III and particularly Louis XIII, 'the State'. Ali in ail, wllat is to be seen Il Pi'mc d~ SémalnvlUe. ClNk de la nobI~ {mnçoise (Paris, 1860). 734. n Georges Oumëtil, 'Ma;6~ ct grllri/IIS', in IIIks rotmli"6 (Pari$, 1969), 125--S2. 164 Olivier Ihl here is the ultlmate degree of a principle of grandeur beyond which no one can climb, a 'height of power at which the State must stop and establish itsclf'.l.l Now, it was to this grandeur of Sta fe that the republic ended up by attaching its hierarchy of merit. On the occasion of the session of the Conseil d'Etat of 14 floréal, ycar X, devoted to the adoption of the Legion of Honour, the ficst consul, the fu ture Na poléon Bonaparte, made thls overwhelming statement: The revolution i~ behind us. Wc have destroycd cverylhlng; now wc must recrealt'. There is a government and tllere are powers; but what Is the Test of the nation? Grains of sand. We have ln OUT midst people who were forrn crly privileged. who arc organized by principlc and interest and who know very weil what they want. 1 can cOunt our ene mies. But l'le ourselve5 are scattercd and without system, wjthout any means of meeting o r contact. As long as 1 am here, 1 will certainly answer for the Repuhlic but we must look to the future, We must 'cast a few masses of granite upon the soil of France'; we must give the pt.'Ople il direction and we nee These instruments, Napoleon would find them in hicrarchical signs and hon orary rewards, Grades, ranks, coshlmcs, and decorations: the external signs, both functional and secularizcd, by mean s of wllich the State would hence forth obiectlfy merit. In fact, this technique was not new. lt started i.11 court society. Thele, every distinction provided an opportunity of obtaining power. Awarded by the king, a distinction had a prestige value which was bath hier archical and transmittable, This was a matter of more than respect, for it brought with it immunities, prlvlleges, tax exemptions, positions, and lands, In the same way, at the basis of étiqllette Jay more than decorations. There were cules goveming precedence, royal pensions, genealogical tiUes, gestures, and apparel of bodies and societics ... in a ward, ail thoS!' things that, rcferred ta in his WT itings as 'fonnaIitlcs', sa obsessed the Duc de Saint Simon. ' s These were signs which, as acts of homage paid to lineage as much as ta loyalty, had the effect of encouraging a commerce of favour, hanging as they did upon the arbitration of royal favour.16 For the king finaUy managed ta seize the power ta confer nobility, either by the individual award of hcrcditary distinctions the famous Ir.'ttres pate/Jtes~r by collective ennoblement. , . Charles Loyseau, Tmiré dei wiglltu,les (Paris, 16(8), 60, For a general pr~ntatl on of such a frame of re!iearch, we Olivier 1111 and Yves Deloye. 'Dc\l~ lil:ures ~ln gulièT<.!s de l'unIverse l: la République Ct le sacré', in M~rc S"doun (l'd,), La dbmxmrk l'II F,mlCf. 1.: Tdéologif.5 (Paris, 20(0), 138-246. ,. Quoted ln Ch all~ R. f.. de SaInt Maurice, Histoire de la Uglo" d'H(»!l!eur (P~ r is, 1833), JO. '5 The document rKently dlsruvcn.'(i by YVe'i COir~uL ln Salnl Simon'! pcrson~] papen, Mbnoirt slJCdlll Sil' Id r~malitts, bean tlle _lgns of lhls. Wlitten ln AuguSl 1712, it \Vas pubLlshcd ln Tmllis pt1Iitiqllts n aurm: fcriu (P~ris. 1996), 1:'17-.106. '" On the Importance of ranb and dlstlnctiom in the st'vemeenlh cenfury, we Henrlllrocher./~ ,allg fI ""ti The Science of Power of Count Gorani ln Paris in 1792, a wock in two volumes with the tltle of Recherches Sllr la sei· el/ce de gOllvememcl!t was published Y:I The author, Giuseppe Gorani, was an Enlightenment 'adventurer', at once 'philosopher', courtier, and reformer. He was a transition figure between the worldly science of the eighteenth century and the academiç science of the nineteenth.19 Unlike such philosophers as 17 Mer..-yn Jaml'S, 'Engll5h !\Jlitie:; and the Concept of Honour 14RS-I642', Past a/ld Prt"Smt, Supplement no. 3 (1978), I!$p. 22. Il ThiS worl<. was fir~t publishe-d lJnder the tltle, RIe","/,,, SIII/il srimza ,~I goll'"nta br Heubaçh, Durand &. Co. in Lausanne in 1790. However, ~ ub s tamial alterations were made for this French l'di· lion. l~ lIom in Milan in ] 7441nlO an ancient and noble famlly, this Îlllm'Îtiista 15 presented in the die· I!onaries of the Restorat!on a5 a man who 'sowcd se<:ds of ,e"olution and democraçy in the Penlnsula'. Il is troc that, as a member of th .. .socINy fi Cttffe. he pLayed an Importanl role in the spreading of 'philosophlcalldeas·. He wou a frknd of lleccaria, Vern, and Fris! and aJso, in Frana-, of Volralrc and Holbach, and WIOle severa.1 works Includlng a Troit; dll de.\IJOli$I~, which mo\-ed llaiUy 10 asl<. for l'rffich citixcn~hll) on hls behalt in the National Asscmbly. As alde-de-camp to Mirabeau and the Girondins, hls exploits causcd him to tic rcjCClcd by the lombardy noblllty. Ranishe-d and Strippe Montesquieu, Rousseau, or Dragonetti,20 he made absolutely no attempt either to identify the mast legitimate forms of government or to determine what proportion of liberty man might have received fram nature. Casting aside these 'metaphysical speculations', he strove ta establish a different arder of discourse on the 5tate, a rhetoric tilat owes mueh ta the 'police science' Po/izeiwi,Hemschaft-of the universities of the German-spcaking countries and their teaching.Zl 50 what was his aim? Ta rebuild the grand cdifice of social relations through a new code of public merit. His idea was ta establîsh a 'trea sury of honours and outward decorations in arder ta encourage emulation and in sa doing reward services rendered ta society'.22 The degree of novelty in re lation to the aristocratie orders of honour is undeniable and rests upon three points. First, this 'currency of honour', entrusted as it would be to the public author ity as the guarantor of its value, had to be the reward for 'a truth weil known ta the public',n a way of signalling that decoration no longer derived its capacity ta distinguish its recipients from its rarity but rather from astate monopoly which sanctîoned its legitimacy. AdmittedJy it would be the Prince who awarded these signs of greatness. But in so doing he would simply be fol lowing the wishes of the academies specializing in the adjudication of merits. The Prince would thus be obliged to reward only Ihose people who were judged worlhy of reward by 'senates' set up to judge the different types and degrees of virtue. From being a princely art favouring the ambitions of the court, the competition for honours would go through a metamorphosis: through being applied 10 a great number of people, it would become a matter of procedure, institution, verification, inquiry, classification: in short, a sort of bureaucratie instrumentation of distinction, which from then on would be awarded by a tribunal of opinion. ln the second place, the brilliance of these signs of eminence would be pro portional to the degree of usefulncss of the actions performed. Thus decora tion would now be thought of as a means of recognizing 'fine deeds' as opposed ta 'those distinctions and prerogatives thal opinion attaches to birth'.24 In other words, it could no longerbe accorded to the grand figures of W Giacinto Dragonctti, Tmité des "ertus et des peine)' (Pari s, 1768), tramlJted from Jtalian by J.c. Pingewn. z, Camerallsm formed the bash of the poiilical philosophy and the prl'Ccph regarding adminis tration in a ne\\' f lS Ibid. :z.; Goran!, R«l!t'TdIes sur la sOma de g 29 Goranl, Rtôlef(h/'j $lIr III ~d<7lCt dt KOI"'t mrml'flt, 278. Emulation is cmurro by means of a hier_ archy of dlsllnctlve signs and types of reward, 'This order of encouragement will conslst of four classes, Ihe first of 25 grand rommanders who will ~ach have a pension of on~ thousand ll\'tes and will be dL"O)ratro ",Ith a gold mroal of one Inch and a half ln diameter 10 be wom around the nl'CI:; They will have an embroidered gold star on the unifoml. The K, A Technology of Virtue This sCIupulous management of control and visibilîty also lies at the heart of the political philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. Of his numerous works, his Théorie des récompellSe.~ has received Iittle attention:B lt suggested, however, control procedures which were as important as those in the Pallopticoll, which became famous in the nventieth century through the writings of Michel Foucault. liere the mechanism was Ilot one of rehabilitation or pun ishment but a 'cultivation of bellevolence' which v·muld be the product of emulation through decoration: The Humane Society, established in Eng[and for the purpo~e of affording assistance ta persans in danger of drowning, and providing the means of restoration in cases of sus pended animation, distributes prizes ta those who have saved any individual from death ... An institution of a similar nature, for the reward of services rendered in cases o f lire, shipwreck, and ail other possible accidents wOllld still further contribute to the culture of benevolence; and these noble actions, brought in the same manner under the eyes of the Iegislators, and insnibed in their journa[s, wou[d acquire a publicity of much less importance ta lhe honoured individuals than ta society in genera1. Indeed, though the reward applies only ta one particular action, the principal abject designed is the culti vation of t hose dispositions which actions indicate: and this can only be accomplished by the publicity which is given to the examplc, and the public esteem and honour in which il is held ...34 other hand, paved the way to deca<.len<;e, as could be s~n from 'the sovereigm of Egypt who, like these of lIaghdad. failcd to preserve the nation from a wretched destiny'. Voyage en Syrie et etI Egyptc poulml[ les allll"~ 1783, 1784 <"1 1785 (l'ari>, 1787), 92. 1\ view which is aiS<) exprcssed by the Abbé Raynal in his Histoire pl';los(/pl,iqu~ ~! poli/i'/"e des établissemetlts dlJ commerce dn f.urop(nls ,les drox Indc.l, i. (The Hague, 1776). 26. Gal>rir.\ de Mahly is even more critical and speaks of a golden age which 'bcgan by being borne to pt'rfKtion with the Rume of Romulus only to degenerate ~ubs~ quentlr'; Parallèle des Romaill.l rfdes Fra/l,ais par rapport augouvememenl (P;tri s, 1740), 23ft This is also the path taken by Claude Adrien Helvetius. for whom 'whilst it is very dangcrom to tamper too fre quently wit h the machine')' of govcrnment ... there are limes when the machine stops if one fails 10 renew its springs. The ignorant worker does not dare to perform thi~ operation; ;tn<.l the machine self-destructs. Thh is nnt the case with the sk.illed workcr. He ~nows ho,," to maintain it by repairing it with ~ hold h~nd. lIut such wise boldness presupposes an in_d~pth ~ tudy of the science of govern· ment; this h an exhausting branch of study, which onc is capable of only in earl y youlh and perhaps on1y in countries in which public c~tccm promises people considerable advantages', an 'education' whkh rnight 'in the gleat empires, came tdlents and virtues to Illultiply m/ illfillitlllll'. De l'esprit (Paris, 1758), 643. '" This is ail the more surl'rising bKause the work, which was wrillen in 1775, was very success fu i in its lime. First published in French by Etienne Dumont under the titlc Théori,. d<,s peille, et des réwmpm,es (I.ondon, 1811), il was republishcd in ISIS in l'ari~ by 1I0ssange et Masson and in 1825. again in l'aris, by Bussangc frères, l>cfore al'l'earing again in vol. 2 of his Owrres publi~hed in Brussels (Société Belge de la Libr;tiric) in 1840. An English version was published in 1811 by the Edillburgl/ Neview. This was rcprinted in 182S in London br Richard Smith for]. &; H. Hunt. Since the text had beeu substantially modified by Etienne Dumont, a Swiss jurist fricnd of Bentham's, WhOlll he had entlllsied with the translation, only to repudiale this Interpreter a~ 'having undcrstood not a word of rny thooght', it was the English manusuipt that was used for this edition, the one whil"h, under the tille Till' Ratiol/llle of Rfward, was published br his ;tssistant and publisher, John Bowring, in TIle Works of Jeremy l/ent/wIII, il. (London. 1838), 89-266. ... ]. Bentham, TI,,. Ratioll Persuade everybody that theÎr actions, he Ihey good or bad, are watched over by the State: for Bentham, this was how to get positive actions perfonned, that is to say, by orienting and dirccting free behaviour. Defined as a 'means of remuneration', the poliey of decoration was the antlthesis of the modern idea of penalty: 'Every distinguishcd service might find a place ln these annals; and the people, always prone to exaggerate the vigilance and the means of infor mation possessed by thelr gavernors would soon be persuaded that a perpet uai inspection \Vas kept up, not merely with respect to their faults, but also to their meritorious actions.' Do wc need to he reminded that Bentham's philos ophy was, Iike Goran i's, inseparable fram h is politicai struggle?lS Jostling as it did the positions of both the Tories and the Whigs, it had, as we know, a pro found influence on English politicallife, particularly on the eledoral reform of 1832, with the extension ofvoting righ ts, and in 18 72, after his death, with the adoption of the secret baliot. Bentham, who was a 'democrat' through his attachment to the ideals of the Enlightenment, founded in 1824 with James Mill the Westminster Review, which was the spearhead for numerous constitu tional and educational reiorm bills. His plans concerning teaching methods, and notably those promoted by Lancaster, demonstrated this: the 'science' of emulation is bound up c1 0sely with educational procedures. Speeches, struc tures of precedence, pri ze-givi ng ceremonies: these were all resources 10 be exploited in order to Iink honorific gratification with individual adherence 10 social norms. ln his Déontologie 011 Science de la morale, Bentham explained the status of these 'means of remuneration', which required extremely careful attention on the parI of the authorities: 'rcputation, honour, fame, celebrlty, glory, dignity' were merely 'fictitious entltles'. But although they had in common wi th money or land the fact ofbelng 'objel..1:S of possession', the difference was that going out in search of such goods, 'however substantial tlley may be, was not considered unseemly'.36 Sanction thus had a double status in his system: in the judîcial domain, il acted mainly through punishment, whilst in the administrative realm il operated through the charulels of reward. And it Îs in this latter role that il 'it is applied to those virtues which are designaled by the Stale as being worthy of being rewarded by it',l7 Il is quite c1ear: fOf Gorani, as for Bentham, the art of government operated through the mysterics of a 'science of morality'. This 3rt was founded on teclt lloIos ie.~ o( e:œmplarity: means of gratification-public office, promotion in society, indenmity, or decoration-which would quite simply be signs of val idation that would make an example of types of behaviour which went ... Note Ihal, like Go.anl, Dumont was a secrctary to Mirabeau, for ",harn he WIOle a nurnoo of spet' A Fiction of Ennoblement? The 'democratic' operation of decoratlon cornes down ta two aspects which su m up its dcvelopment over the last two centuries: the arbitrarinessof the dis tri bution of distinction is no longer a matter of the favOUf of a monarch, at one and the same time judge and part of the system, by whose hand the spec tacle is initiated. It cornes out of a whole machinery of administration, of forlllS to be nlled in, letters of recommendation, reports of inquiries, consul tations, and regulations, ail of which contribute to a will for uniformity that causes the patriarchal aspect to recede from view. Moreover, as a means of reward, honorinc gratification has been made accessible ta every citizen and th us constitutcs a pattern of gaps and differences, whlch has lost ail consis tent)'. The creation of the Legion of Honour ca used a confrontation which, more th an any other, brought out the principal arguments provoked by the 'demo cratic' adaptation of the system of distinction. According to the partisans of Ihe order, since it l'las intended to reward military and civil services, it did not creale a new dass of citizens. While respecting the equality of everyone, it merely established an 'honourable distinction between those who have served their country and those who have done nothing for it'.:w According ta its detractors, however, the creation of the order was an affront ta the very values of the Revol ution because 'the proposed arder leads ta aris tocracy. Crosses and ribbons are the mttles of monarchy . , . Wc no longer have classes, let us not move towards re-establishing them. In the Republic, magis tratures and appointments must he the best rewards for services, talents, and vlrtues'. iO Another councillor of state, Thibaudeau, was equally hostile: 'This institu tion, which is considered to be a guarantee of the Revolution, seems to me 10 go against its 3illlS and, as an intermedJary body, to set out from a principle which cannat be applied to a representative governmenl. 1 fear that the love of ribbons may do more ta weaken the very sense of duty and honour than ta .'111 JU51 one example: for Charl L"5 Hi s, 'the gOllernmenl, made up as il is of men, can do nothing 10 prCllcnt dlher the num~r or the djver~jly ofhuman passions hut il is possible \0 prepare the g,ound Jn whlch the$/! pas~iOl1S may clrculalC without damaglng :KXi~ty'. TIlblrie rlu momJf politiqu( D" dl' la sci('/Ice ilrl gOl/vememe.1I CO'll/dérk comme sdmu CXrlCU (Paris, 1806), 209. Sil Picrre·Louis R()('dcrcr, quoted in M. Saint·Maurlœ, Hisroire dt 1<1 11g101i d'lMmeu, (Paris, 1833), JO. "" Thêuphile Bernier. quotL-d ln Saint·Maurle(", Hi)wilt' dr la Ilgioll d'lrotJ/~"r, 35, 172 Oli vier Ihl strengthen it and cause it to bear fruît.'41 As wc know, Bonaparte famously replied: 1 challenge anyone ta show me a repubUc, ancient or modern where there were no dis tinctions. Sa these are ratrles, arc lhey? Weil, il is with ratlles Ihat men arc lcd. Nations that are old and corrupt are not governert demanded by the Legislative Assembly in Its session of 15 Oecember 1791 in the Committee of Public Instruction. Three commissloners were appointed: Vaublanc, Condorcet, and Jean de Bry. They drew up a bill whîch ., S~lnl·Mauric e, Histuire ,le ["It'siim d'hVlllleur. 37 . • 2 Saint.Maurice, Histuirt dt lillt'siml d'ilomlerrr. 39. H Sainl-Maurice, Hiswirf dt lu 1/glul! d'/Wfllll'ur, S9. On the bl"h of Ihls order ofYlrtuc, see Fredérlc Caille') recent clarification, 'Une dtoyennet" supérieure. L'lmp,ob.able -fonction M tic:; membres de la l~on d'honneur dans la œpublique', RmN fTallflli5t dl' Sein/cr PoIiriq/U'. 47/llI997), 70-68 . .... This Is sho\\'n by the tlL~ which. in t 793, ~warded an oak wreath and a copy of the Comtitution to young prile.... 'inn~rs. On 4 August 1793, at the height of Ihe Terror, Ihe awardlng uf prill'S for the general competition hdd bctw('('n the Paris schools look place al a Çcrl'mony in the Saile des Jacobins. The orator. a certain Dufoumy, explalnL" 4' ln ordcr to sullJe<1 ail the membl'r.; of the Polish goverrunent to a 'gradual man:;h', Ro~au suggesled rc-establishing the d~ and in ~ignia of the former equemlan orders. But rather than havlng Te...-..rurse to 'ribbons and !,:wcb'. as under the monarchy. whkh had the appearance of feml nlne baut-lles, these lnslgnla would take the {orm of plaques of diff~rent metals 'whose material "alue would oc in inverse proportion to the grade of those ",110 wore them·. C(I/lSid,'rarj,m.1 .lIIr le gouvemr_ m,'II! For the radical republîcans and soon fOf the Socialists, the idea was dear: the Revolution brought with it equality in the cyes of the law but also the metric system, the Code civil, the reform of the calendar, and the nationalization of the language. It was essential to prcvent this homogeneous political space from being ruined by the reintroduction of insignia and sashes which would have the effect of catalysing new farms of social fragmentation. ln the 'sister republic' of the United States, the debate was no less passion ate. Should a system of civil rewards be set up? The question arase at the end of the War of Independence. Influenced by t he writings of Guichardin on ancient Rome, John Adams was one of the mast resolute supporters of deco rations. In his view, titles were indispensable ta a republic as they rnaintained the passion for rewards and consequently the passion for virtuous attitudes: 'Men aspire ta acts of greatness when rnerit is dependent upon reward.'4!! This concept of ernulation through honours played a central raie in the revolu tionary vision of the laid Whigs'. If people of talent were encouraged ta satisfy thcir need for decorations, it was because public performance was carried out for the benefit of the cornmon good. In sa doing, it worked towards forging a 'republican aristocracy', one in which distinctions would be dependent solcly upon competence and not upon birth or money.49 But this position was contested. For Thomas Paine, the notion of decora tians came straight out of the ancien régi me and was just a forrn of mystification intended ta keep the people in a state of ignorance and fear. Madison tao thought that it was dangerous to ask the language of honours ta cornmand the respect of the people because, in a republic, 'passions must be controlled by reason aIone'.5u Thc House of Representatives put an end ta the contIoversy. It decided that honouIs would be awarded only fOI acts of mili tary bravery. Thus it was that in 1782 Washington created the Purple Heart Badge of Milîtary Merit, a simple purple heart made of woollen cloth and silk ta be worn on the left lapel of the tunic. On the other hand, in civilian life, the people preferred ta applaud rich men rather than men of virtue, Or rather they would be persuaded ta honour the latter whilst paying deference to the former. Tocqueville summed this up as fo[[ows: in such a commercial society, the point of honour is hlrned away from the values of the warrior and is instead focused upon the love of wealth. 1f honour is nothing other than that 'particular IUle founded upon a particular state, with the aid ofwhîch a people or a dass distributes blame and praise', what is surprîsing about this? ln the absence of a tradition of nobîlity, and especially in the absence of any rnajesty .8 Juhn Adams, A Defenu of the CousritlJîiol!S of Govt'mmmt of the United States of America, in Charles Francis Hcnry Adams (cd.), The Work, ufJolm Ad"',,-I, vi. (Iloston, 18S1), lOS. The çonccpt h developt'd l'ven further in hi s DiI(Olmies U1l Davila; see Tlie Works of10h11 Ad The Republic of Honours ln France, old monarchie country by Its history, the Republic was nO I free from the Imperative of majesty. In order to colonize the nation's Imagination, it exhorte Decorations are not, as has bt"en said, an attack on the equalîty Ihat must reign betwet"n men, nor are they simple trinkets of vanity; what must be 5een În them is public recog nilion of servîces rendered and a powerfui motivating force towilrds emulation and encouragement. S2 And even when the profusion of honorary orders made thcm less enviable, when obtaining thcm tu rned out trom time to time ta be a matter of favoues or courlesanry, there were no negative conclusions to be drawn [rom this so far as the institution itself was concerned, This is because, in the words of the publlclst Henri Fouquier, 'whilst admitting that honorifi c distinctions do not Cfeate merit and that virtue in the broadest sense of the term has no need of them, they do encourage virtue and mark it out; and by the simple fact of doing sa give it the value of an example, which is absolutely essentlal'.SJ There is no denying it: the Republic most certainly defined a new form of honorific deference, Tt did not renounce dccorations, Nor did it content itself with imitating the monarchie mode! by substituting new signs of merit for the old ones, What it in fact did was to coin il new usage of the sign of merit. Its first feature was that the business of state honours was no longer characterized by the hierarchy of hereditary conditions, much to the displeasure of the tradltlonal elites, who had high hopes of using them as a means of defending themsclves against 'the invasion of comman men'. Instead, republican ~, Alexis de Tocqueville, fN la dnmxmrit 1'11 AmhiqlU', H. (l'aris, 1961), 318. ~z llleodore Bachclct et Charles Oezobry, 'Décorations', in DicriQmJa;1I' ùt'$/effmi, des bellllX-III'fS t't des .scieuceJ momies et politiques (PariS, 11\79, 5th edn). Il Cited in Joseph Durieux, Elude Sur l'IIrtloll dI5Clpli",';rt de la LégiQn d'I!ml/lellr (l'a ris, 19(0), 34. 176 Olivier Ihl decorations became non-hereditary.54 The second featufe was that honour was no longer at the service of the mon arch but now operated in the name of a nation proclaimed as the sole proprietor of titles of dignity. This is why dec orations were taken to main tain the sense of virtue, a sense thal was ludged to be ail the more essential for having to counterbalance the invasive power of money. 50 what exactly did the award of a disti nction represent? 'An ael of sensible econo l11 y, a compensation fOf services rendered, and an invitation 10 render more. But it is a reward tllal does not cali for morE' rewards: SOciety and the citizen are evcn.'5S This is tantamount to recognizing Ihat, if the decora tion makes a daim to being seen, ils raie is above ail to sec and allow onesclf ta be seen through if and to attraet and retain the public attention whieh is direeted upon il. 50, by developing iu awn honours system, the Third Republie effectively appraprlated this 'gaze'. In order ta do Ihis, it \\las only neçessary to stop the awarding of ti tles of nobility or to decree that, 50 far as bureaucratie deference was eoncerned, honour eonferred was not transferable and did not lead ta any politieal entitlement. For Jules Simon, this was obvi· ous: a distinction is merely a reward that honours and the honour awarded is a distinction that re\\lards: 'For public spirit la be formed and maintained, wc need this great voiee of the nation that accords praise and blame every day, thal reminds us constantly of social principles, of common interests.'5 M Gabriel TIersonnle" Le lIo".brr~ Ir mirire.l.ois corurillllWnllrllt:S Mm 511r le mmll' (ParIs, 1901), s . .. Anon. (sigJ1w M. P.), Des JkomrkHrs dillrs rllle dfnmcmtle (Angoulême, 19(8), 4. ... Jull"5 Simon. cltL'(\ in Ihe article 'J>ubllclté' ln "Iaunœ JJlock (l'd.), Victiomraire géllérillll~ III JKIIi- tique(Parls. 1863). 51 This protection, which had hœn abollshed by the July Monarchy, WdS rC'l' ~tablJslled ln May 1858. It was intendcd 10 guarant~ Ihe purlty of tilles of noblllty but alsu 10 combat the fraudulent use of 'airs of nobllity' Juch ilS lhat of auulng il partic!e ln the patronymi(. On the Icactions provoked by Ihi5 Inlrlarl\"e, see de SémainvUle, Cotie de 1(llrobl~ {T"'IfIlÎSt, 740. Emulation tnrougn Decoration 177 1891 which laid down the etiquette fo r wearing these 5tate honours: the Legion of Honour look precedence avec the Military Medal, commemorative medals, university decorations, the Agricultural Order of Meri!, and the Medal of Honour; forelgn decorations were relegated to the bottom of the list and, significantly, were to bc worn to the left of national orders. 50 far as the legal protection accorded to these tributes of honour was concerned, there can be no doubt: the prison sentences and fines set out in article 259 of the code pénal were every bit as severe as those put in place in Ils own code by the ltalian monarchy in 1889. In both cases, the aim was to guarantee that State honours be accorded the deference that was their due. Everything thus points to the conclusion Ihat, whatever the type of government, the capadty to award an honour had bc<:ome a princely right. 'There is no honour but in the Stale and the Slate alone can dispense il', as Emile Worms reveali ngly put itYI From then on, those external demonstrations by means of which eminence achieved recognition would be in the control of the State. Now, by daiming Ihis prerogative, the European bureaucracies took over the monopoly of signs of validation of meri!. Consequently, Illey were able to transform certain modes of behaviour-what one might cali poses of grandeur-into recognized and covelcd foons of worth. Ali in ail, they had succccdcd in setting down the rules governing the torms taken by social esteem and in using these ail at once as a tool for regulating ambitions, as a bonus ta encourage loyalty, and as a means of making certain modes of conduci serve as examples ta others. The Bureaucratization of Honours Since the ninetecnth century, bureaucracy in Europe has taken on the guise ot a workshop in which Innumerable forms of honorific gratification have becn crafted. Not anly are there rules of preccdence, military parades, escorts, and olher codes of sa IUle, funeral honours, or official customs, there are also dec oralions of cvcry sort: marks of consideration awarded to certain bodies and certain people on account of their role or their worth. ln France a plethora of distinctions has becn added to the Legion of Honour: the award known as the Rescue Medal (1820), the Cross of the July Combatants (1830), the Military MedaJ (1852), the medals of Sainte-Hélène (1857) and of the Mutual Aid Societies (1858), the China Medal (1861), the Posi and Telegraph Medal (1882), the Forestry Officiais' Medal (1883), the Tonkin Medal (1885), the Labour Mcdal (1886), the Madagascar Medal (1896), the Prison Administration Medal (896), the Indirect Taxes Medal (1897), the Public Works Mcdal (1898), the Colonial Prisons Medal (1898), the International Exhibition Workers' Medal (1899), and the Hremen's Medal (1900). In Imperial Germany too, the bureaucracy set out to create new SI. Emile Würm!, LtS Idlt'lrwts Ù l'IrOllllfllf . diffama/lU/l, ùrjum, omrllJts, iIi/rdlère, duel, Ims ~ur la pf~, tfc. (l'ari!, 1890). 23. 178 Olivier Ihl honours. 50 it was (hat the Royal Prussian Cross of Merlt was introduced in October 1910. lt was widely awarded and was intended not as '3 guara nteed hanour for specifie rank.s, but as a visible demonstratlon of the monarch's favour, basecollar workers in the industrial, agricultural, or business sectors who had displayed exemplary conduct. 1iO ln England, it was left ta a subtle variation in the use of the adjective ta distinguish between degrees of honour. These ran (rom the 'most d istînguished', through 'the most noble order', the 'most exalted', the 'most hanourable', ta the 'most illuslrious'.6\ Il would he mistaken ta see this inflation of hanours as bcing nOlhing more than a survival from the past, the imprint of a nobility which, having disap peared as an arder, continued to impose its customs on the rest of society: in short, the remit of a fascination on the part of bourgeois Europe for the aris tocratic lifestylc.".l This expIa nation does not go far enough. Admittedly, the .~ Karin Kaudelka·Hanbch, 11\1' Titlt!d Ru~inessman : J'russJan Commercial Councillors in the Rh lneland and We$tphaUa dutlng the Ni nc!centh Century', in David Blackboum and Richard J. Evans (l'lb), Tht' Gmmm &II.gro1J~ (London and New York, 1991). K7-114. 60 On Ihcsc new 'honorific nobillsa ilons', see Gian Carlo Jocteau, Nobili t rltlbiliÛl ndl'ftJllia U"ita (Rome, 1997), 24-86. 6. On the trandormatlve proceSC$ of arhlocratic honour ln England, see Abraham D. Kriege], 'Uberty and Whiggery in Earl)' Ninl'll;'\'TIlh-Century [ngland', !(mn/al ofModtm His!fNy, 52 (1980), esp. 266-78. ~ This of <;ourse b Arno Ma)'tr's Ihesls ln La pt'T"SÎst!'nce de l'Allelfil R~gjmr. L'Europe de 1848 Il la Grmule CI/me, tran~. J. Mandelbaum (Paris, 1983). Em ulation through Decorat ion 179 new tHles could be seen, as was the case with the superior grades of the orders of Saint Anne and Saint Stanislas in Russia, ta constitute the antechamber to true ennoblement. But, more often than not, these decorations were purely personal and were thus only honorary tit/es. Since behind them lay no territo rialliefdoms, their function was to reward the services of agents or professions over which the bureaucracy wished to gain control. This was the case in Germany with purely honorary tHles of first or second dass, such as KOll1l11erziel1rat, 11Istizrat, Bmlrat, Medizil1alrat, or Regien111gsmt. Just as sign ili cantly, in France, after the creation of the Leh'Îon of Honour, the conseil du Sceau had to establish a distinction in arder to protect the ancien! noble tlUe of knight (cllevafier): 'The appellation chevalier de la Légioll d'hOl/llellr ... must always be placoo after the name rather than before it, given that It Is in no way a tiUe but merely a qualification.'63 Th is did not prevent the noble title from suffering from the competition wlth the bureaucratie distinction-to such an extent that around the 1830s it dropped out of use exccpt amongst a ider gen erations.64 Even If the inflation of honours and decorations in the nlneteenth eentury was a means of reaffirming the pre-eminence of the old ruling class and of keeping control over the fortunes of the 'ne", men', it nonetheless had another mainspring, as can be see n even from the changes that took place in government practices. Let us not forget: everywhere on the European contî• nent, new administrative tasks made it necessary ta set up permanent offices and organizations and to define areas of jurîsdîction and procedures. The administration of the State was transformed into the hands of the ne", elites: it moved from a prebendary-patrlmonlal logic to one of bureaucratie rational ity. This reorganizatîon of departments, which continued at an intense pace right through the centuey, brought with it an explosion in the number of pub lic employces. The new status conferred upon employees and clerks, who had previously been raid as their superiors saw fit but were now placcd under the control of assemblies, also offered new opportunities. Now Linder State con trol, the management of administrative personnel prepared the way for the advent of the modern figure of the civil servant. With this, funetlons that had up to then been the monopoly of ecc!esiastieal and municipal administrations were taken over, from the civil registry to the education of the people and aid for the pOOl. This is also the context in which the bureaueracy generalized the use of hon orilic means of gratification. It was a question of ensuring systematic mastery of the eonduet of civil servants. Professionai qualifications alone were no guar· antee that the means of administration would be rationalized. Somethlng else was rcquiIed: purely honorary rewards that would make it possible to forge the alliance between the princes and the bourgeoisie against the privileges of the higb nobility. The Gennan example is an cloquent one. Unlike what ~ This session of 19 April is discussed br Jean Tulard. Napol&m et la uobltswd'Empirt (Paris, 1979), 156. ,;< David Hlggs, ,'iobles, titre.l, uristlXmus ell FmI/cr ap'fs la R€I'IAutilm, IH(J(~1/J70 (Paris, 1990). 63. 180 Olivier Ihl happened in France, unification did not lead to a national system of honouTS. Quite the contrary. It encouraged a proliferation of titles of distinction and of ennoblement in the 25 states that made up the Empire, with the exception of the dty states of the Hanseatic Lea/:,'Ue such as Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck.65 Thesc means of gratification Ihus served to 'feudalize' the Germ an bourgeoisie, and in particular the middle classes, who renounced all auton orny and rushed to gel thel r hands on thase aristocratie orders that WCf(' mast highly prized, such as the Red fagle, the Black Eagle. and the Cross of the Knight of the House of Hohenzollern. The result was that, in Ihis 'Prussianized' society, the ethical models and the codes of behaviour of the military nobility became generalized,66 But there were highcr stakes than Ihis behind these means of gratification. They were întended to reconstil'ute a type of autocratic authority at the very heart of the imperial bureaucracy. This can be seen from the way in which the system of decorations was set in motion in concrete terms by the machinery of$tate, Although Wilhelm II was presented as being a 'fountain of honours' his reign coincided with an expansion of the practices of ennoblement67-the independence that the Stale had managed to grasp for itselfwas very real. This stood out very clearly on the occasion of the centenary of the University of Berlin in 1910. The Emperor protested about the composition of the list of honorands, which contained more govemment 'offi ciais' than university figures, but the bureaucracy haughtily ignored his Injunction, And it went sIm furlher: it continued to make use of each and every occasion to reward those trom its own ranks, For was lt Ilot the bureaueracy that actually handled the management of honorary titles? It was indeed the case thal requests were addressed to the General Orders Comm i s.~ i on, a body which had no power of decisioll but which, nonetheless, handled the material procedures: the updat ing of registers, the awarding of medals, the organization of annual celebra tions. Il was the Prussian cabinet (Geheill.'s Zivilkabillett) which was the principal arena of discussion and decision. lt appointed the special commis· sions that examined the metits of civil servants. TIleir number had undcrgone an explosion between 1882 and 1907, rising from 251,000 to 94S,000, that is to say, from 3 per cent to 5.2 per cent of the active population. The honours that were introduced dUTing Ihis period thus had IWO objectives: ta respond ta a growing demand for distinctive signs of merit and to develop a new system of bureaucratie control. There i5 no getting round it: the bureaucratization of honours i5 essential ta any modem dcfinition of mcrit. The respect for State action does not spring 6S For a pr~ntatîon of the l'lay Ih31 Ihe awarding of d.,çoratloru l'las OlChestJaleawards to those whom we regard as being worthy of such is our prerogative and ours alone . .. From now on, no aet of hornage and no reward can be voted for, offered, or awarded as a sign of public recognition by municipal councillors, national guards, or any otileT civil or military body without prior authorization. lO 68 Max Weber, Wirt5d"'tt und Ge5rllscllU(I, ii. (Cologne-Berlin, 1964), 718. 69 Tocqueville notcd: 'it was dissimilarities and inequalities that erratcd the honoues system'. 1t can only dwindle whcn these are femovcd and disappear with them. De I~ démU( 1(ItÎe en Amérique, 333. li' Ordonnanœ No. 198, in Bulletin des lois du RUfmmlf df Fnmee, (1816) (Paris, 1817l, 4. On the science of govemmcnt that inspired this monopolization of the sign~ of public recognition, sel' Olivier Ih1, LII fëte républ;cIIÎue (Paris, 1996), 62. '82 Olivier Ihl Léon Morgand, who was chief of staff at the Ministry of the lnteriar, pro vided the following remindcr of the statc of affairs at the beginnîng of the Third Republîc: 'The right to award tokens of public recognition is an essential attrihute of the statc. No person can substitute himself for the state flOT speak in the name. of the state.'71 Same si tuation in Italy, where in 1889 the House of Savoy set up the reglster of the Consulta Ara/dica de Regna (Office for the Titles of the Kingdom) in a rder to channel and control the norills afuse apply ing to titles. ln Imperial Germany, the Almanac of German Orders (Delltscher Ordmliste) provided the means of keeping scrupulously up to date the list of more than a lOO,()(X) names that made up this hierarchy of arders. The great and the good of the kingdom had gilded copies whilst other, more modestly produced versions were available in ail the administrative centres of Prussia and the Reich. Setting itself up as the producer of sodability, the Statc apparatus in a num ber of European countries took control of the disseminatlon of signs denoting homage. It was as if the persol1f1 fieta of the republi c, kingdom, or empire was but a screen behind which another proiect was being carried out, that of a bureaucratie structure subordinating the new elites of commoners by devel oping a deference that was modelled on the more.ç of the former court nobil ity. This is why the existence of honorary distinctions cannot be explained sim ply in terms of the mnction they served, which was that of making certain moral and d vic qualities visible. '1'0 leave it at that would be to reduce the dec oration to a mere sign and consequently to forget Us specifically administra tive dimension. There Is no way of avoiding the fact that the value conferred upon these marks of glory is first and foremost that of the political mecha nisms that promote its recognition. Although demacratic distinction confers gravitas upon an exemplary figure, this figure ex ists only through his encaunter with the bureaucracy. Tt is the State that, sinee the end of the orders of chivalry and nobility, has dispensed and protected honorary rewards, insignia that it endows with what the inventor of semloUcs Charles S. Peirce called a 'representative quality',72 insignia in which, sinee that time, it has concentrated its power in order ta establish itsclf in grandeur and dazzle the eyes of ail . ., Léon Morgand, Ik~ hommages p"blic.~ déumés paf les (orps ndmil1lsfmti(s 01/ View publication stats