Abstract
Decentralisation in France was implemented belatedly and gradually. Local government authorities were recognised at the end of nineteenth century, but the confirmation of the principle of decentralisation was enshrined in law in 1982 and then in the Constitution in 2003. In France, decentralisation relies on controversial territorial planning because it is complex, difficult to understand, costly for the state and generating public spending. This is why territorial reform has been underway since 2010 and has led to the adoption of legislation in 2014 and 2015. These measures tend to generalise and modernise consolidated local authorities including the creation of “métropoles”, they have also led to a new territorial division of the now larger regions. Similarly, the reform has sought to redefine the powers of local authorities by removing the general clause of regions and “départements” while modernising local government finances in a context of reduced budgetary resources.
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- 1.
Article 1, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of 4 October 1958 following the constitutional reform of 29 March 2003: “France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic. It shall ensure the equality of all citizens before the law, without distinction of origin, race or religion. It shall respect all beliefs. It shall be organised on a decentralised basis.”
- 2.
Report of the Committee for the reform of the local authorities presented on 26 March 2009.
- 3.
Law of 10 August 1871 concerning departments and Law of 5 April 1884 concerning communes.
- 4.
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- 5.
Law no 70-610 of 10 July 1970.
- 6.
An Ordinance of 5 January 1959 set up unions of communes of multiple bias and urban districts; a Law of 31 December 1966 established the communities of the communes.
- 7.
Law no 71-588 of 16 July 1971.
- 8.
Law no 70-1297 of 31 December 1970.
- 9.
Law 72-619 of 5 July 1972.
- 10.
Law no 82-213 of 2 March 1982 concerning the rights and freedoms of communes, departments and regions.
- 11.
The constitutional law of 28 March 2003 concerning the decentralised organisation of the Republic.
- 12.
The details of this capacity were specified by organic Law no 2003-705 of 1 August 2003.
- 13.
Organic Law no 2004-758 of 29 July 2004.
- 14.
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- 19.
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- 20.
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- 21.
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- 32.
Article L 2121-9, L 3211-1 and L 4221-1 of the General Code of Local Authorities.
- 33.
CE Section 28 July 1995, commune of Villeneuve d’Ascq, rec p. 324.
- 34.
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Sauviat, A. (2017). Decentralisation in France: A Principle in Permanent Evolution. In: Ruano, J., Profiroiu, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Decentralisation in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32437-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32437-1_7
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