1946-1954:
early beginnings
The first governors of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques
(André Siegfried, Roger Seydoux, Jacques Chapsal, François
Goguel, Jean Meynaud) worked to ensure that it remained a vibrant and
dynamic institution, fully endowed with its own resources. They sought
and obtained the necessary State funding to create and ensure the growth
of the library, Press and study Centres, thus laying firm foundations
for the Institute’s later re-founding. The subsequent founding
of Institutes for Political Studies in Strasbourg (1945), Bordeaux (1948),
Grenoble (1948), Lyons (1948), Toulouse (1948), Aix-en-Provence (1956),
Lille (1991) and Rennes (1991) led to the creation of a national network
in which the Foundation maintains a presence.
Under
the leadership of Jean Meyriat, their director until
1990, the documentation facilities became one of the leading centres
of its kind in Europe specializing in the social sciences. The documentation
centre and the press file service were responsible for the processing
and dissemination of information at national and international level.
Publications also began to appear: from 1947, the library published
the Bulletin analytique de documentation,
in concert with other institutions, and also the Cahiers
de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, whose
first issue was entitled “Etudes de sociologie électorale”.
1951 saw the launching of the Revue française de
science politique, directed by Jean Meynaud. From 1948
to 1949 the Foundation played a decisive part in the setting up of the
Association française de science politique and the International
Political Science Association. In 1970 it was a co-founder of the European
Consortium for Political Research.
These early study and research centres were the forerunners of the
research centres to come: the Centre d’étude des
relations internationales (CERI), under Jean-Baptiste Duroselle;
the Centre d’études scientifiques de la politique
intérieure, led by François Goguel; the Centre
de recherches administratives, headed by Henry Puget; the Centre
d’études de l’URSS, under A Spoutnizky;
the Centre d’études économiques,
created by Jean Meynaud. In 1952 Jean-Marcel Jeanneney set up the Service
d’études de l’activité économique et
sociale, which succeeded the Institut de recherches économiques
et sociales founded by Charles Rist.
