Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Splitu (Jan 2019)

State and decentralization in France since 1982.

  • Jacques Caillosse

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 56, no. 1
pp. 69 – 77

Abstract

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"The State and decentralization in France ..." are nothing exclusive. It cannot mean that decentralization is just be a „job “of the state faced with territorial powers. The state always considers the context which it alone cannot confront (in the case of economic or financial crisis or where security is concerned), when it sovereignly delegates certain supervision it can take just as much as it can dissolve decentralized subjects (more or less forced and more or less directly agreed upon by joining or re-assigning). To this legally confirmed delegation of authority, its own authority defined by the Decentralization Act is added. Local authority represents a whole in which duties of authority are differentiated (which are replaced in the case of non-implementation by official duty) or non-compulsory authority. Or, between exclusive or common authority, if one knows that local self-government can directly or indirectly implement (in the case of concession or public service delegation). One also needs to mention that in the majority of EU countries, only law can determine the regime of municipalities (in opposition to what exists in federal states). France is, in that sense, a model for a unitary state, to that extent to which development according to administrative federalism (as well as political) is rejected, as confirmed by decentralized organization valued in this country (from decentralization reform in 1982 up to the law of 7 August 2015 on the new territorial organization). To tell the truth, France has gone through all forms of regime, government and administration in just over two centuries, and so could serve for every observation on decentralization, and its qualities and downsides.

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