ABSTRACT
France pioneered at least one characteristic feature of professional society. From the French Revolution onwards it was designed to be a meritocracy. The revolutionaries, and Napoleon despite his abortive empire and Bonapartist nobility, set out to replace the hereditary principle of the ancien régime with la carrière ouverte aux talents. The state suppressed the education system run by the Church and abolished the universities, and replaced them by the government lycées and grandes écoles. These secular high schools and advanced colleges were highly selective institutions, open in theory to everyone with sufficient brainpower and stamina to pass the competitive entrance examinations, but in practice confined to those who could afford the fees, the private cramming, and the opportunity costs in foregone income, which limited them to the prosperous bourgeoisie.
