Social trajectories and diversity of careers: Two aspects of the evolution of the medical profession in France (1925-1989)

Over the last 50 years or so, the medical profession has undergone a profound transformation. In France, the boundaries of this period are marked by two decisive factors: - -construction of a system of collective funding of the services offered to the public by the medical profession; - -the need to control the increasing cost of medical services. At the same time, the adoption of an organized and permissive approach to funding has created a protected market and greater medicalization of the different strata of society through a specific process of professionalization of medicine. We point out the implications of these processes. It is assumed that public funding has extended the scope of liberal medical practice without physicians themselves being fully aware of the advantages and the resulting economic benefits it has brought them, i.e. its effects in terms of easier acquisition of wealth. These assumptions are based on two aspects of the data collected in the course of an extensive survey of 5491 retired French doctors: 1. 1. Analysis of data concerning the social origins and mobility of physicians. 2. 2. Analysis of the medical careers of physicians, diversification of professional orientation over time and physicians' incomes.