Sciences Po

Lore & Background

After World War II, the school faced accusations of collaboration with the Vichy regime and Nazi Germany. Communist politician Georges Cogniot accused the school of being the 'home of collaboration' and proposed abolishing the École libre des sciences politiques entirely. To avoid abolition, director Roger Seydoux, his aid Jacques Chapsal, and professor André Siegfried excluded staff most compromised with the Vichy regime and Nazi Germany, and built a communication campaign to save the school.

In 1945, the French government created two entities: the Institut d'études politiques (IEP) and the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (FNSP), a private foundation that manages the school's budget and property. This public-private structure grants Sciences Po high autonomy. The school also became the primary feeder for the newly created École Nationale d'Administration (ENA); between 1952 and 1969, 77.5% of ENA's graduate student intake were Sciences Po alumni.

Reader's Guide

Sciences Po's significance lies in its role as a crucible for France's political and administrative elite for over a century. Its founding in 1871 by Émile Boutmy, Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Albert Sorel, and Paul Leroy Beaulieu responded to fears that inadequate education of the French political elite would diminish the country's international stature after the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. From 1901 to 1935, 92.5% of entrants to the Grands corps de l'État had studied there.

The school's innovative axis was to teach contemporary history, whereas political elites had only been taught ancient humanities for centuries. Its model was later emulated by institutions like the London School of Economics and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. The school's unique public-private status, established after World War II, allowed it to retain autonomy while receiving substantial government subsidies.

Its decentralized undergraduate campuses in Dijon, Le Havre, Menton, Nancy, Poitiers, and Reims each have academic programs focused on a geopolitical part of the world. As of 2021, 80% of its graduates work in the private sector. The school's legal agreement with other French Institutes of Political Studies grants it the exclusive right to use the epithet 'Sciences Po' without a city name, underscoring its primacy in the network.