Permanence and Change: The Relations between Central Government and Local Authorities in France

The system of government in France has been dominated by central control, with local-government structure arising largely from historical rather than from current administrative needs. The reforms of 1982 show the first linkage for a century of the local and central political majorities towards a policy of dentralisation. Stimulated by this socialist movement these reforms have aimed to reduce the power of the prefect, to institute general socialist change, to increase the power of local communities, and to decrease central administrative checks and controls. The effect of the reforms has been to strengthen the départements and large cities against the prefect, but for the small communities decentralisation will probably remain a pious hope. The paper discusses these reforms against the background of the historical ‘honeycomb’ structure of French central-local relations.