Abstract
Globalization, Europeanization and Decentralization form the core of the pressures faced by nations. "A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation,? said Edmund Burke (quoted by Norton in Jones et al. 2004: 348). Thus, if the study of changes is interesting, the assessment of continuities, or as the new world leaders would put it, of path dependencies, is indeed sometimes even more stimulating. In that context therefore, at first sight, the French State appears to be confronted to a large range of challenges, both external and internal. These challenges push for a modification of its traditional role. However, the aim of this essay is to study to some extent both the changes and the elements of continuity that lie behind the later of these pressures, as a result of decentralization. This subject, though already ancient, has regularly been at the top of the French political agenda since the Deferred laws of 1982. The last manifestation of its importance in French politics occurred with Raffarin's constitutional reform of 2003.
