Metropolitan Local Government in France
| Author | Bryan Keith-Lucas |
| Published date | 01 October 1962 |
| Date | 01 October 1962 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1962.tb00997.x |
| Subject Matter | Notes and Review Articles |
NOTES AND REVIEW
ARTICLES
METROPOLITAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
IN FRANCE
BRYAN
KEITH-LUCAS
Nu&M
College,
Oxford
IN
THE
last few years increasing attention has been paid in
a
number of countries to the
problems of government that
arise
as
large
cities expand into the neighbouring countryside.
Like
London
and the great cities of Canada and the U.S.A., Paris is faced with the difficulties
which such expansion
causes,
for the population of the region has increased since
1900
from
4,800,000
to
8,400,000
people, and
is
now increasing by about
170,000
a year. Accordingly,
recent legislation has introduced
a
new organization to co-ordinate the social and economic
development of the Region-&
District
de
la
R@on
&
Paris.
The problem is not strictly comparable with that of London, though the underlying causes
are
similar.
The difference lies greatly in the clearcut distinction drawn in England between
central and
local
government, in contrast with the French conception of
a
unified system
of
government embracing both
local
councils and central authorities.
Thus
the considerations
and arguments in the two countries are essentially different. In England the Royal Commission
on Greater London discussed how best to create local authorities to govern London, rejecting
unhesitatingly the idea that Greater London should
be
directly ruled by
a
Ministry. In Paris
attention
has
been directed
to
the question of how to create a machinery to co-ordinate the
existing organs
of
government in
a
common plan of development, social, economic, and
cultural.
There is a difference also in the traditional reluctance of French governments to entrust
the control of Paris to
an
elected body. Throughout the nineteenth century each successive
regime lived in fear of popular rising3 in the capital;
so
there is no Mayor of Paris, but
real
power
lies
with the two prefects-the Prefect of the
Seine
and the Prefect of Police; men of
the highest standing,
they
are
prifets
hors
classe,
appointed by the President of the Republic
in Council, and answerable directly to the Ministers. Within the City of Paris the Prefect of
the
Seine
is assisted by the mayors of twenty arrondissements, who are in effect civil servants,
without responsibility to an elected council.
There is; however, an elected municipal council for the City of Paris, composed of ninety
municipal councillors, but its actions are to
a
great extent controlled by the Prefect of the
Seine. Moreover, its territory is restricted, containing some two million people out
of
eight
and a half million who live in Greater Paris.
Beyond the
area
of the City of Paris lies the Department of Seine, likewise administered
by the two Prefects, and with its Council General of 150, of whom ninety are the municipal
councillors of the City, and sixty represent the suburbs. This department, containing some
four and a half million people, extends for five to ten miles from the centre of Paris, but
excludes much of the area which today is socially and economically a part of the capital city.
Early
in
this century the problems of urban growth became acute; the population was
spreading into the outer suburbs, and co-ordination between the separate departments was
difficult.
So,
in
1910,
there was created
a
third ring
of
the administrative bull's eye-by re-
organizing the Department of Seine-et-Oise, to form
a
ring right round Seine. This was an
ordinary department, administered in the same way as the departments
of
the provinces,
with its headquarters at Versailles. It had no direct co-ordination with the Department
of
Seine, though for town planning purposes an advisory body was appointed to keep the
authorities in step with each other.
After the Second War it became apparent that
a
greater degree of co-ordination was needed,
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