Abstract
Despite the changes of political regime, revolutionary episodes and wars that France has known for four centuries, the architecture of its administrative institutions has little changed. His conception of a highly centralised State, inherited from the Old Regime, and of the management of its territories and parishes, which had become the basis of a One and Indivisible Republic. ‘An impulse that comes from the top and respects local conventions’, has long prevented a depth reform of the hierarchy of administrative levels, their number and powers ‘administrative layer cake’ and, therefore, the limits of their constituencies. However, since the last quarter of the twentieth century, because of the financial difficulties experienced by the small territories and probably also because of the need of an harmonisation with the other European countries, France has implemented a devolution process of decentralisation from the central government to local authorities and new regions.
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Notes
- 1.
A trivial but revealing example is the new system of car registration in France: ‘On Tuesday, 28 October 2008, the Minister of the Interior, Overseas Territories and Local Authorities received a delegation from the parliamentary group entitled “Never Without My Department” concerning the new registration plates. To avoid disregarding this evident attachment to departments, the minister agreed to make compulsory the display of a geographical identifier on registration plates, composed of the number of a department and the logo of the corresponding region….’ http://www.123savoie.com/article-7555-1-nouvelle-immatriculation-des-vehicules.html
- 2.
Two more than exist in most other European countries; moreover, the European territorial classification NUTS has only retained three.
- 3.
Understood as the lack of differentiation between French citizens, irrespective of origin, religion or language.
- 4.
Deconcentration is a variant of centralisation, not an aspect of decentralisation. It creates no independent public service officials and only moves the seat of decision making. ‘It is still the same hammer that strikes, we have just shortened the handle’. See bibliography, J.-P. Lebreton.
- 5.
Laude Grasland, pp. 115–132, see bibliography.
- 6.
Cf. Mirot, L. and A., Géographie historique de la France, p. 55.
- 7.
Cf. Mirot and Mirot (1980, p. 111).
- 8.
Cf. Lang, G., Le Code officiel géographique, see bibliography.
- 9.
Annexed to the session of 26 February and confirmed by royal letter patent of 4 March 1790. However, the principle of the kingdom’s division into department, district and canton had been voted previously on 22 December 1789.
- 10.
From 1790 to 1795, the term district was used in French. In 1799 the term arrondissement was substituted, and is used to this day. See note 12.
- 11.
Cf. Benoit, J.-M., La France redécoupée, p. 15.
- 12.
Apart from a short period, 1795–1799, during which the districts, which numbered 544 in 1790 and grew to 561 with the annexations of 1792–1793, were abolished and replaced by ‘cantonal municipalities’ deriving from the merger of districts, cantons and several thousand small, rural communes. The Constitution of the Year VIII (1799) re-established this second tier under the name of ‘arrondissement’.
- 13.
In French, ‘circonscriptions d’action régionale’.
- 14.
In French, communautés urbaines, communautés d’agglomération and communautés de communes.
- 15.
The term local authority is used in this translation for its greater acceptability in English usage. Note, however, that ‘the term local authority is a common-language description of what the French Constitution calls a “territorial authority”. Indeed, until the constitutional revision of 28 March 2003, both terms featured in the Constitution: local authority in Article 34 and territorial authority in Title XII. But since then, only the latter expression appears in the Constitution. Authorities are therefore now “territorial” and the expression “local authority” has no legal basis’. Extract from the INSEE website
- 16.
Ibidem.
- 17.
This includes the local authorities of Paris, Lyon and Marseille (so-called PML Act of 31 December 1982), Corsica and the French overseas territories, see the paragraph on Special Status.
- 18.
The French droit commun is not to be confused to with common law in the English sense (law developed through court decisions, as opposed to legislation); rather it describes the set of legal rules, which apply in general to all situations that are not subject to special or specific rules.
- 19.
See bibliography, J.-P. Lebreton, L’administration territoriale, p. 2.
- 20.
In French, ‘municipal’ arrondissements: not to be confused with ‘departmental’ arrondissements that divide the departments. ‘Municipal arrondissements’ are administrative divisions existing only in big cities; Paris from 1800, Lyon from 1852 and Marseille from 1946.
- 21.
Stemming notably from the consular decree of 1800 (12 Messidor Year VIII), which determines the functions of the Paris prefect of police and by the laws that later amended it.
- 22.
Tribunal de Grande instance, tribunal d’instance and tribunal de commerce. Another particularity of Alsace-Moselle: there, trains run on the right, whereas in the rest of France they run on the left.
- 23.
Created in 1946 by the Finance Act of 27 April to replace the National Statistics Service, which had published the first version of the COG in 1943.
- 24.
For the 100 French departments, 96 in metropolitan France, 4 overseas.
- 25.
Office of the Planning Commissioner (Commissariat général au plan) and the DATAR (Town and Country Planning and Regional Development Agency).
- 26.
In French, the Laboratoire de Démographie et d’Histoire Sociale: a team belonging to the Centre for Historical Research, joint research unit (UMR) 8558 (French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS/School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS).
- 27.
See bibliography, Pélissier and Brunterc’h (2003).
- 28.
- 29.
ANR 2010, Space and territory programme: spatial enigmas of life in society. Observation of the territory for the understanding of evolution of administrative boundaries and settlements. Building Geo-Historical Databases and ontological approach, see http://geopeuple.ign.fr/
- 30.
Until 1 January 2012 according to the European Council Decision of 29 October 2010 amending the status with regard to the European Union of the Island of Saint-Barthélemy, Official Journal of the European Union, 9 December 2010.
- 31.
Misuse of language to qualify this reform of decentralisation. See bibliography, J.-P. Lebreton, p. 13.
- 32.
Source: European Council, committee on local and regional democracy 2007 and http://www.senat.fr/rap/l09-169/l09-16921.html
- 33.
- 34.
Including five with zero inhabitants. These are the municipalities of the ‘red zone’, located in the departments of Marne and Meuse, whose land was riddled with unexploded bombs and was declared uninhabitable after World War I. Their municipal identity is preserved for the duty of remembrance. Their mayor is appointed by the prefect. Besides these five municipalities, Rochefourchat (Drôme) has a single inhabitant, Majastres (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) just two and Leménil-Mitry (Meurthe-et-Moselle) three inhabitants.
- 35.
Citizens’ right to information, dialogue about urban planning issues, right to petition, etc.
- 36.
See Bouvier, C., Le Lidec, P. (1997). La République et ses maires, 1907–1997. 90 ans d’histoire de l’AMF, see bibliography.
- 37.
On this subject, see bibliography: Hervé Le Bras, Le peuplement de l’Europe, and Claude Motte, Marie-Christine Vouloir, Frontières administratives et identité communales.
- 38.
Taxpayers who pay at least the equivalent in taxes of 3 days work in the municipality.
- 39.
This is the position currently adopted the Constitutional Council, initially in its decision on the ‘Status of Corsica’ of 9 May 1991, in which it stated that the constitution “only recognises the French people, composed of all French citizens without regard to their origin, race or religion” and invalidates the article in the law declaring ‘the Corsican people’ as ‘a component of the French people’. The only significant breach worth mentioning arises from the Nouméa Agreements of 5 May 1998, which recognised a ‘Kanak people’. This results from New Caledonia’s transitional status, which creates in certain subjects a legislative power specific to this community in the form of ‘laws of the country’, which may be referred to the Constitutional Council (Constitutional Act of 20 July 1998 and Organic Act of 19 March 1999).
- 40.
Bordeaux, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Lille, Metz, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Orléans, Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Étienne, Strasbourg, Toulon, Toulouse and Tours.
- 41.
Aix-Marseille and the Grand Paris.
- 42.
- 43.
As defined by the INSEE’s Code Officiel Géographique.
- 44.
Mayotte joins the four other French overseas regions (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Reunion Island) that have the distinctive feature of being single-department regions. Following the 1974 referendum, the island split off from the other islands of the Comoros archipelago by voting to remain in the French Republic.
- 45.
- 46.
Lyon has a special status because the municipalité is not an EPCI but is granted the same competencies.
- 47.
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Websites Consulted
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_territoriale_de_la_France
http://www.123savoie.com/article-7555-1-nouvelle-immatriculation-des-vehicules.html
http://www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/gerer/classement/normes-outils/geonomenclature/
http://www.insee.fr/en/methodes/default.asp?page=definitions/collectivite-territoriale.htm
http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/reforme-collectivites/que-va-t-elle-changer/pour-ma-commune
http://www.juripole.fr/Juripole_etudiant/J-Y_Couteau/conseil_municipal.html
http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/outre-mer/statuts-differencies.shtml
http://www.vie-publique.fr/decouverte-institutions/institutions/collectivites-territoriales
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Annexes
Annexes
1.1 Dual Mandates in France
A member of parliament (member of the European parliament, the French National Assembly or the Senate) shall not hold another parliamentary mandate (member of the European parliament, the French National Assembly or the Senate).
A member of parliament (member of the European parliament, the French National Assembly or the Senate) may hold no more than one mandate in one of the following local deliberative assemblies: regional council, Corsican Assembly, general council, Paris council, municipal council of 3500 inhabitants or more.
A member of a local deliberative assembly (regional council, Corsican Assembly, general council, Paris council, municipal council) may hold only one other mandate in another local deliberative assembly.
The head of a local executive (president of a regional council, president of the Corsican assembly, president of a general council, mayor, mayor of an arrondissement) shall not hold another mandate as head of a local executive.
1.2 Population of Overseas Local Authorities
N° local or regional authority | Local or regional authority | N° municipality | Municipality | Total pop. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
975 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 501 | Miquelon-Langlade | 615 |
975 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 502 | Saint-Pierre | 5675 |
977 | Saint-Barthélemy | 701 | Saint-Barthélemy | 8823 |
978 | Saint-Martin | 801 | Saint-Martin | 37,163 |
Break down of municipalities by threshold population, as on 1 January 2006
Three quarters of municipalities account for 15% of the population
The 36,685 French municipalities vary widely in size: 955 municipalities have fewer than 50 inhabitants, 925 over 10,000 and Paris, the most populous, over 2 million. Most are small: one out of two municipalities has fewer than 400 inhabitants, one out of four has less than 200 inhabitants.
Nonetheless, although small municipalities are the most numerous, they only represent a small proportion of the population: the 27,396 municipalities of less than 1000 inhabitants represent nearly three quarters of the total number of municipalities, but only contain 15% of the population, the same proportion as the 39 municipalities of over 100,000 inhabitants.
The DOM municipalities are on an average much more populous than the metropolitan ones: 15,000 inhabitants on average (from 9000 in French Guiana to 32,000 in Reunion) compared with 1700 in metropolitan France.
Municipalities that are less populous than the European Union average
France alone accounts for nearly a third of the municipalities in the European Union. The proportion of the French population in the whole of Europe (12.8%) and the relatively small size of these municipalities compared with the European average (1700 per municipality in France, 4000 on average in the European Union of 27) explains this situation (graph).
On the European scale, the 2600 French inter-municipal organisations (public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation) are much larger: 21,000 inhabitants on average and 11,000 inhabitants for the smallest of these (the municipal communities), which is higher than the average size of municipalities in most European countries.
Average population of municipalities in the countries of the European Union of 27 in 2006
The point of comparison is the LAU2 (Local Authority Unit), which is equivalent to municipalities in France
Field: European Union of 27; Source: Eurostat, Insee
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Motte, C. (2021). France. In: Martí-Henneberg, J. (eds) European Regions, 1870 – 2020. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61537-6_13
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