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European Sociological Review 13:159-177 1997
© 1997 Oxford University Press

research-article

Meritocracy and Social Heredity in France: Some Aspects and Trends

Dominique Goux and Eric Maurin

Dominique Goux, INSEE, Direction des études et Synthèses Économiques,15 boulevard Gabriel-Péri, BP100, 92244 Malakoff Cedex, France.
Eric Maurin, INSEE, Direction des Statistdques Démo-graphiques et Sociales,18 boulevard Adolphe-Pinard, 75675 Paris Cedex 14, France.

Our study focuses on the links between social origins, educational attainment, and social destinations in France. We use data from the four latest surveys on Education and Qualifications (Enquetessur la Formation et la Qualification Professionnelle) for 1970,1977,1985, and 1993. Our main findingsare the following:

The inequalities in social destinations among persons with identical educational attainments but of different social backgrounds are as wide as inequalities in the school system.

In France, social inequalities widen in the course of the working career. Social origin is an asset at the start of a career, but even more so during a career.

The pattern of social mobility has remained virtually unchanged for the past half-century.

Our data allow us to propose some explicit tests of the meritocratic model which is implicit in Bourdieu's works and of the non meritocratic model put forward by Boudon (1973). The rejection of both models leads us to offer two alternative theoretical models compatible with the observed data.


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