Territorial administration and political control. Decentralization in France

Jean-Claude Thoenig ()

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Abstract: The paper is based on intensive longitudinal field research. It suggests an interpretative model of territorial governement in France. Relations between national and local authorities as well as policy-making processes suggest that the centralized state has face a major decline of its hegemony and that decentralization reforms have induced a polycentric dynamic. Seven basic characteristics and three key properties of the model are discussed. The emerging model is neither a new localism nor a new centralism pattern. It is the product of incremental and ongoing trade-offs between centrifugal and centripetal forces. This complexity reflects a situation that is under the rather conservative, as well tight, control of national politicians who hold multiple local elected mandates

Keywords: intergovernemental relations; France; national state; local authorities; coordination; policy-making; political integration; relations entre l'Etat et les autorités subnationales; intégration politique; décentralisation; cumul des mandats. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00139986v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Public Administration, 2005, 83 (3), pp.685-708

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00139986

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