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The district is a territorial subdivision departments French.

Role and administration

The departmental district is a territorial district, subdivision of the department; it itself is subdivided in common cantons and . The administration of a district is entrusted to a sub-prefect which assists the Préfet department.

Contrary to the areas, the departments and the communes, the departmental districts do not have the statute of moral person of public law. Always with the difference in these territorial divisions, the districts are not managed by people elected, but designated by the presidency of the French Republic.

History

The principle of the districts was proposed in several reform projects under the Ancien Mode, in particular by the Intendant of Brittany Caze of Bove in its Mémoire concerning subdelegated intendance of Brittany in 1775.

The departmental districts were actually created by the Loi of the 28 pluviôse year VIII (February 17th, 1800) and replaced the District S. They were used for certain periods of legislative district, in particular during the Third Republic. Moreover, the decree of September 10th, 1926, which removed 106 districts under pretext of economies in the administration, was regarded as an electoral handling.

In 2007, there exist 342 districts. The majority of the departments have three or four of them. The departments of the Territory of Belfort and Paris have one of them, while the the Moselle has nine of them. The department of Seine-et-Oise, in 1966-1967, right before its suppression, had eleven districts, which constitutes the maximum ever reached.

The three districts of Metz-Countryside, Strasbourg-Countryside and Thionville-West have common a chief town which does not belong to the district. The district of Saint-Martin-Saint-Barthelemy (Guadeloupe) did not have a chief town, according to the geographical official code of INSEE (but this district does not exist any more in 2007 since St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and Saint Martin's day were set up in territorial collectivities and do not form any more part of the Guadeloupe).

For a few decades, the number of districts has tended to increase, more particularly in Ile-de-France and in the overseas departments. Thus, these fifty last years, the following events occurred:

2007: disappearance of the district of Saint-Martin-Saint-Barthelemy (Guadeloupe)
2006: creation of the district of Arcachon (the Gironde)
2000: the district of Montmorency becomes the district of Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise)
1995: creation of the district of Saint-Pierre (Martinique)
1994: the district of Noisiel becomes the district of Torcy (Seine-et-Marne)
1993: creation of the districts of Noisiel (Seine-et-Marne) and Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis)
1988: creation of the district of Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne)
1984: creation of the district of Vierzon (Expensive)
1981: creation of the district of Istres (Rhone delta)
1974: creation of the districts of Brignoles (VAr) and the Sailor (Martinique), fusion of the district of Sélestat and Erstein (the Low-Rhine)
1972: creation of the districts of Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) and of the Haÿ-the-Pinks (the Valley-of-Marne)
1969: creation of the districts of Saint-Paul (Meeting) and of Saint-Laurent-of-Maroni (Guyana), removal of the district of Inini (district with particular status, Guyana)
1968: creation of the Saint-Beno4it cheese district (Meeting)
1966: creation of the districts of Antony (the Seine, for the formation of the Hauts-de-Seine), of Nogent-sur-Marne (the Seine, for the formation of the Valley-of-Marne), of Stamps (Seine-et-Oise, for the formation of the Essonne) and of Argenteuil (Seine-et-Oise, for the formation of the Val-d'Oise)
1965: creation of the districts of the Trinity (Martinique), Nanterre, Bobigny and Creteil (the Seine, for the formation of the Hauts-de-Seine, the Seine-Saint-Denis and the Valley-of-Marne, these 3 districts being created implicitly by the designation of the chief towns of the future departments)
1964: creation of the district of Saint-Pierre (Meeting)
1963: creation of the district of Saint-Martin-Saint-Barthelemy (Guadeloupe)
1962: creation of the districts of Montmorency, Palaiseau, Raincy, Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer (Seine-et-Oise), Calais and Lens (Pas-de-Calais)

Moreover, the districts of Saint-Denis and Seals (department of the Seine), which ceased being managed by a sub-prefect in 1880 to pass under the direct authority of the prefect of the Seine, were never formally removed as administrative divisions, and were thus implicitly removed by the cutting of the Seine in four new departments in 1964.

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