The ELSP was established as a private institution in 1872 by Emile Boutmy (along with Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Albert Sorel, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu and René Stourm), was dissolved in 1945 following a demand coming primarily from the French Communist Party, the strongest political force at that time, as well as other political figures not affiliated with it, such as Jean-Pierre Cot and André Philip. J.P. Cot and André Philip were both members of the Parliamentary Committee on the reform of the State. The ELSP, known then as Sciences Po, was indeed considered as an institution providing the sole Parisian bourgeoisie with a quasi-monopoly over access to the most prestigious positions in the French civil service (the Grands corps de l'Etat or high administrative bodies). More to the point, the ELSP was discredited for having trained many senior civil servants who quickly supported and were actually the backbone of the Vichy France from July 1940 to August 1944.