File n° 75 

The Archive Department was set up in July 1789. At first its role was merged with that of the National Archives but its field of activities has gradually broadened and in 2002 it became the Archives and Parliamentary Historical Research Department. Its tasks are now the following.

I. –  Indexing the debates of the National Assembly in plenary sitting

Every year the Archives Department draws up a table (by name of M.P. and minister), as well as an analytical table (by theme) of the debates held at the National Assembly in plenary sitting. To do so it makes a semantic and reasoned analysis of the official verbatim report published in the Journal Officiel.

1. – Table by name of speaker

This table compiles a list all the speeches made by each M.P. during the plenary sitting. It also lists his positions on each of the various bodies of the Assembly, as well as the Members' bills, resolution motions or reports he has tabled.

2. – The analytical table of the debates

The analytical table lists all the topics dealt with during the debates in plenary sitting at each stage of the procedure. The different phases of a bill’s discussion can thus be easily followed and, thanks to the thematic listing, all the parliamentary proceedings and initiatives dealing with the same subject are simple to find.

In addition, in its first part, it includes in a series of charts presenting all the data concerning the make-up of the Assembly and its bodies, appointments to extra-parliamentary organizations, the composition of the Government, sessions and plenary sittings and the various Members' bills, Government bills and European Union instruments tabled before the Assembly. It also contains crosswalk tables which make it easy to establish the link between the articles of a law which has been promulgated and its articles as a Government or Members' bill all along the various phases of the legislative procedure in the Assembly.

II. – the compilation of election manifestos for elected M.P.s

Amongst the traditional tasks of the department is the compilation of authentic election platforms and manifestos for M.P.s elected during general elections. This compilation, which is often consulted by researchers, is more frequently referred to as the “Barodet” after the M.P. who first created it in March 1882.

III. – managing the archives of the National Assembly

This is indeed the original and traditional task of the Archives Department. It is responsible for the collecting, depositing, archiving and maintenance of all the archives of the National Assembly.

The Archives Department, first of all, plays an advisory and training role as regards the other departments of the Assembly. It provides them with the methods and tools necessary to help the daily management of the documents they produce. To do this the department liaises with the “archives” correspondent in each department.

Then the department files the collections which have been deposited by the departments and draws up inventories which nowadays are listed on computer.

For several decades now the National Assembly has maintained a policy of providing documents to the National Archives. All legislative documents prior to 1958 have thus been transferred to the National Archives. These documents include the minutes of committees and the administrative archives, some of which go as far back as the 19th century. Subsequently, a series of archives concerning legislative activity (the legislative files of bills considered in plenary sitting, minutes of committee meetings etc.) covering the first eleven Parliaments of the Fifth Republic (1958-2002), were sent for safekeeping to the Contemporary Archives Centre at Fontainebleau. 

The archives sent to the National Archives remain available for the Archives Department for consultation purposes.

The Archives Department is, in addition, responsible for the management of the sound and television archives of the Assembly. It possesses, in its video library, the recordings of all plenary sitting debates since 1974. These are in the form of sound recordings between 1974 and 1981 and in televised form from 1982 onwards. It also possesses the recordings of all public hearings in committee. It can, upon the request of the media or M.P.s, make reproductions of these archives.   

IV. – receiving and assisting those who wish to consult archives

The Archives Department provides material and theoretical assistance to those wishing to consult the archives (in particular administration and the legal profession) as well as helping researchers who need to refer to parliamentary documents and the department’s collections for their professional activities or their research work.

It receives numerous requests every day which are more and more often made by electronic mail. The most frequent requests concern the reproduction of an extract from a debate or a reply to a written request, the activity of the Assembly in a particular area or access to a specific speech by an M.P. or biographical details on M.P.s. This list is far from exhaustive.

The department also has, on its premises, a consultation room which is used by around one thousand people every year. In this room it is possible to consult printed parliamentary documents (Government or Members' bills, reports etc.), official reports of plenary sittings as well as a series of other documents such as lists of M.P.s, compilations of election platforms and manifestos for elected M.P.s etc. It is also possible to freely consult, in accordance with the rules set down by the Bureau of the National Assembly, written documents over thirty years old (subject to exceptions laid down by the Heritage Code).

In order to facilitate research on former M.P.s, the department has set up a biographical database going back to the revolution of 1789. It covers nearly 16,000 M.P.s. Certain information from this database is already available for consultation on the internet site of the National Assembly: civil status of the M.P., dates of his term(s) and a biographical note taken from the directory of parliamentarians. 

More generally, the Archives department, in conjunction with the Communication and Multimedia Information Department, is developing the consultation of parliamentary proceedings on the internet site.

V. – encouraging and developing historical research

The Archives Department carries out the secretariat of two operations which aim at encouraging and developing research in the fields of parliamentary law and history:

― Research grant: every year the National Assembly awards a research grant to a student beginning or having begun a thesis on parliamentary law or history since the Revolution. The length and amount of this grant are based on the rules applied in higher education;

―  The National Assembly Thesis Prize: this prize is given every year to one or two students who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis in one of the aforementioned fields. It is in the form of financial aid towards publication which is given to the publisher of the thesis.

Furthermore, the Archives Department is part of the publication policy which aims at developing the general public’s knowledge of the history and working of the National Assembly. This policy has taken on even greater significance with the setting-up in March 2005 of an editorial board (which is now linked to the Communication Department).

Thus the Archives Department publishes the Directory of French Parliamentarians which for the moment is composed of three series: the first which covers the period 1789-1889 and was published from 1889 onwards, the second going from 1889 to 1940 and which came out between 1960 and 1977 and the final dealing with the years 1940 to 1958 and whose last volume is in the process of being published. Work is currently going on concerning the M.P.s of the Fifth Republic.

The Archive Department has also been involved in the publication of relatively specialized works. A collection of six volumes entitled “Great Parliamentary Speeches” brings together, for each period, the speeches made in the Chamber of the Palais Bourbon. A final volume is given over to the history of Parliament since 1789.

In partnership with the Communication Department, the Archive Department contributes to the development of the “Histoire et patrimoine” (“History and Heritage”) section on the internet site which can be used, for example, to go through historic official reports such as the “Tennis Court Oath” or the trial of Louis XVI or to consult the files on “grands débats” (“great debates”).