The Erosion of Local Autonomy in France: A Shift towards 'Government at a Distance'

Extract

[...] Cities thus find themselves in a situation of dependence on national agencies and the state. Unification and centralization have weakened the power of cities and local experiments favored in the 1980s/1990s have been replaced by a coherent and uniform national policy." The State has also entered a commercial logic by applying the recipes of New Public Management : rationalization of bureaucracy with fragmented steering functions between strategic and operational functions, creation of national agencies to carry major projects, increased responsibilities for operators, and competition among local authorities. [...]

[...] It is no longer the animating State and there is no longer an impulsion of policies from the cities. Several problems emerge from this finding: - Is this the end of public service on the territory because, although this question seems abrupt, the distribution of budgets and programs based on merit and competition between local authorities will automatically marginalize certain cities? - Does this dynamic mark the death of cities and agglomerations in terms of political initiative? - A political system that no longer encourages regional or local specificities and initiatives is it really democratic? [...]

[...] The ephemeral return of cities. Local autonomy put to the test by the recompositions of the State; "The government at a distance" - Renaud Epstein (2008) The final paragraph proposes the observation of a weakening of the grip of cities on state policies at all levels where it was once present: urban planning, housing policy, territorial development. At the local level, the prerogatives and the role of impulsion of the departmental structures in public policies have disappeared (the example of the DDE is significant with the departure of the engineering staff and the end of its expertise). [...]