The promotion of "critical citizenship" has become a key objective of official school curricula around the world. Using an analytic framework developed by the authors, this paper identifies the diverse conceptions of critical citizenship that are promoted, by comparing the official school curricula for citizenship in England and France.…

Examined are the various aspects of recruitment and training at both the Civil Service College in Britain and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in France. Although they differ widely, their aims converge towards the same need for an educated, capable, and efficient administrative class. (Author/KC)