French Area

The France is divided into 26 areas , including 22 areas located in Metropolitan France (one of them, the Corsica , being more specifically a territorial collectivity) and 4 Régions of overseas.

More high level of territorial divisions of the French Republic, the areas is in their turn subdivided in departments.

An area is also an geographical area more or less definite, related to an cultural identity or social.

Role and administration

France being a unit State, the areas does not have legislative autonomy nor lawful. On the other hand, they receive government part of the national taxes and have a considerable budget which they have the role of distributing in various fields.

From time to time, it is question of entrusting a certain legislative autonomy to the areas, but these proposals are always extremely discussed. It was also proposed to remove the departmental councils (called general advices) to include them in the district councils and to keep the departments like administrative subdivisions, but without continuation for the moment.

In spite of apparent synonymy in the middle of the Francophonie of the areas of France and the Areas of Belgium, the areas of Belgium (the Flemish Area, the Walloon region and the Area of Brussels-Capital) are true federated entities, equipped with legislative powers and executive, with the capacity to act on the international plan according to the principle of the Exclusive competences suitable for the Belgian Fédéralisme.

History

Old provinces of the Kingdom

Before the French revolution of 1789, the Royaume of France was divided into historical provinces resulting from the feudal history and whose, for some, the size corresponded roughly speaking to the current areas. In 1789, these provinces were removed and the French territory divided into 83 departments. The French characteristic is that the regional fact is related to the national fact. As underlines it Mr. professor Autin, “ since the beginning of the 19th century, there existed in France a movement which asserted the creation of administrative and political entities allowing an increased decentralization of the capacities and the recognition of the regional identities ”.

Indeed, after the French revolution, the Nation replaced the King and the State French preserved its centralizing structure what showed Alexis de Tocqueville in the Old Mode and the Revolution in 1851: “ through the pit of the Revolution, the prefect and the intendant is held by the hand ”.

Moreover, the department (History of the French departments) became the rational level of the implementation of the public policies, institution installation by the laws of the January 15th and February 16th, 1790 whose cutting was made under the influence of Honore Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau take into account of local particularisms but not the regional identity of fear of making reappear the countries of State and Elections of the Ancien Mode.

The regionalistic claims, indeed, reappeared towards the end of the 19th century through Frederic Mistral and the Félibrige preaching an identity of language and culture occitane in the literature, current to which was attached the currents counter-revolutionaries, because as explains it professor Daniel Seiler “ as soon as the transfer of sovereignty passes to the Parliament and especially to the Nation, the periphery feels its difference and clings to the former order ”. These references constituted the ideological compost of the defense of the regional identities within the framework of a national revival and royalist range by the French Action of Charles Maurras at the beginning of the 20th century.

Birth of the modern areas

Following a circular of the ministry for the Trade of the August 25th 1917 (itself inspired by the regionalistic theories), a first ministerial decree instituted regional economic groupings known as “areas Clémentel” the April 5th 1919, the first being the area of the east (Nancy) which covered the Lorraine and the Champagne; the the Alsace-Moselle being annexed. These “economic areas” gathered chambers of commerce, with their will, on the territory of the metropolis. The chambers of commerce being free to adhere to the area of their choice and to change some freely, the 17 areas envisaged initially were soon changed to 21, and were managed by a Regional committee made up of two delegated by rooms, to which the Préfet S and Sous-préfet S were assistant which served in an advisory capacity. They were with variable geometry: for example, the 3rd (become 6th) economic area (Rennes) was to gather in 1917 the chambers of commerce of the Coast-of-North, of the Finistere, Ille-et-Vilaine and the Morbihan, but in 1920 the chamber of commerce of Lorient (Morbihan) preferred to join the 5th area (Nantes).

On this model, in September 1919, the federations of tourist offices formed 19 “tourist areas” whose limits freely decided according to a logic geographical, ethnographic, historical and tourist, crossed certain departments, like the Loiret, the Var or the Lozere.

Private bills will accompany this movement in 1915 already, then in 1920 (private bill Hennessy) and 1921 (private bill Charles Rebel, bill Millerand - Marraud- Doumer) for an administrative decentralization with constitution of areas and election of regional assemblies. These projects will not succeed.

Starting from the First World War thus, the development of transport, the modification of urban fabric and the reinforcement of the regionalistic ideas led certain people to wonder about opportunity of creating administrative divisions larger than the departments.

These regionalistic claims were identified with the real country preached by Charles Maurras, disciple of Frederic Mistral, intellectual of the French Action and the national Révolution petainist of the Vichy government. It is, in particular on this ideological base, that the Maréchal Pétain ratified a regional territorial recombining by the publication of the Decree of June 30th, 1941 allotting to certain prefects the capacities regional prefects and bearing division of the territory for the exercise of these capacities carrying application of the law of April 19th, 1941 reorganizing certain old provinces of France by grouping departments between them. The cutting of the Area Brittany date of this time with the absence of fastening of the department of the Loire-Atlantique to the historical Brittany.

This organization did not survive the fall of the Régime petainist and was repealed as of 1945.

The general De Gaulle decided by ordinance on January 10th 1944 of the administrative organization accompanying the release by the territory (then to come) and founded administrative areas which were dissolved with its departure of the capacity in 1946. They were placed under the authority of a Commissaire of the Republic.

The Town and country planning under the Fourth Republic however resulted in reconsidering with these supra-departmental groupings. A decree of the June 30th 1955 decides the launching of “ regional action plans ” in order to “promote the economic and social expansion various areas”. It returns to a ministerial decree, which will be signed the November 28th 1956, to define the districts of these regional action plans, 24 in the beginning (including 22 in metropolis - the Corsica belonged to the area of Provence and Corsica, but one distinguished an area from the Alps of an area of the Rhone), districts which would have been delimited by Jean Vergeot, general police chief associated with the Plan. Of exclusively administrative use (there was no question then of doing anything moreover of it), these areas were created according to strictly technical considerations but succeeded in nevertheless coinciding in several places with the old provinces of France.

In 1960, a decree of the June 2nd refers (for the metropolis) to the limits of the areas on which were founded the regional action plans to make of them districts of regional action (with some modifications: the areas the Alps and the Rhone are amalgamated, the the Low-Pyrenees pass from the Midday-Pyrenees to Aquitaine, and the the Eastern Pyrenees of the Midday-Pyrenees in Languedoc). From now on, these territories will not be only the grounds of economic programs, but it is the whole of the administrations which will have to copy their subdivisions on these districts - they will be able to possibly build administrative units on a case-by-case basis covering several areas or on the contrary subdividing an area in several shares, but the limits of these units must coincide with limits of areas. These districts of regional action will be equipped with a prefect by a decree of the March 14th 1964.

In 1969, the failure of a Referendum aiming inter alia widening the role of the areas led to the resignation of Charles de Gaulle of the presidency of the Republic. This refusal can probably explain why, at the time of the Promulgation of the law of July 5th, 1972 creating the district councils, the districts of regional action are invested of if few capacities; they cease however being simple territories to become public corporations. They take nevertheless from now on the name of “ areas ”, term devoted by the Loi of Décentralisation of 1982 which will make territorial collectivities of them.

The Loi of March 2nd, 1982 instituted the election of the Regional advisers to the Vote for all direct, within the framework of the departments, for a six years renewable mandate. The first election took place on March 16th, 1986. The areas became Territorial collectivities as well as the common departments and the .

Topicality

The Government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of the president Chirac of 2002 with 2005, presented in March 2004 a discussed plan aiming at transferring to the areas management from certain not-educational categories of personnel. Criticisms of this plan ensure that the areas did not have the financial resources necessary to support this load and that such a measurement would worsen the inequalities between areas.

Current regional cutting, born from the administrative adjustment of the French territory in the years 1950 and the preceding projects, is always prone to controversy. In Loire-Atlantique for example, there exists trend of public opinion to integrate this department into the area Brittany. The division of the historical Normandy in two areas (High-Normandy, Basse-Normandie) is also disputed, a certain number of people preaching a fusion of the two entities. More locally, some ethnographic and cultural inaccuracies are regularly disputed, for example half is department of Charente (left commonly called Charente Limousine or Charente occitane should logically be attached to the area the Limousin and not to Poitou-Charentes. The Ain forms historically part of the Burgundy whereas this department was attached to the area the Rhone-Alps. It was also several times question of a possible fusion, later on, areas Lorraine and Alsace as well as areas Burgundy and Franche-Comté.

List

  • 22 areas of Metropolitan France:
the Corsica has a statute of territorial collectivity different from the 21 other areas.

  • four Régions of overseas (which is also each one an overseas department):

The National institute of the statistics and the economic studies (INSEE) allots to the French areas a geographical official code gathering them by zone:

See also the following articles:

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