Evolution of the French State Since 1981: Decentralization and the Rise of Local Authorities
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French governance, decentralization, local authorities, European Union, State reform, liberal ideas, public administration, territorial collectivities
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Abstract
Discover how France's governance has evolved since 1981, as the State's role transforms in favor of local authorities and the European Union. Explore the decentralization process, the rise of territorial collectivities, and the liberal turn that have reshaped France's political landscape. Learn about the State's strategic withdrawal from various sectors, delegating powers to local authorities, and focusing on regalian missions. Understand the impact of European integration and the emergence of new political actors on France's administration. Dive into the ongoing reforms aimed at simplifying the territorial millefeuille and enhancing regional capabilities.
Extract
[...] The liberal turn These evolutions of the role of the State are particularly sensitive in the 1980s, and coincide with the return to favor of liberal ideas. While since the Liberation, a broad consensus existed in favor of a welfare State, economically interventionist, criticisms of this mode of management began to emerge at the time of the economic crisis that began with the 1973 oil shock. Coming from the Anglo-Saxon world, with Margaret Thatcher as leader in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States, the ultra-liberal model advocates, to face the crisis, the break with state interventionism in the economy. [...]
[...] Since 1981, the importance of the State in the government and administration of France has continued to decline in favor of new actors such as local authorities or the European Union. However, it would be wrong to see this as a decline of the State, as this would mean forgetting the essential character of this evolution: it was driven and implemented by the State, which finds its interest in it: by unloading certain of its missions, it limits its charges and focuses on more important objectives. [...]
[...] For the first time since 1958, the left comes to power. Its leader and new President of the Republic, François Mitterrand, has been known since the 1960s for his virulent denunciation of the institutions of the V The Republic judged too monarchical. Everyone therefore expects him to profoundly modify its structure. The movement of reform of institutions and methods of administration initiated by President Mitterrand has been continued by his successors, so that the political and administrative face of France, at the beginning of theXXIe century, it is deeply shaken. [...]
[...] The European Union The governance of French territories can no longer be understood without referring to the European scale. Since the Maastricht Treaty, which in 1992 transformed the European Economic Community into the European Union, member states, including France, have delegated many competences to Brussels. To such an extent that today, a large part of the laws voted in France aim to transpose into national law the measures adopted at the European level. The European Union has thus replaced the State in the elaboration of administrative and judicial norms. [...]
[...] The retreat of the State The decentralization When they come to power in 1981, the socialists emerge from a long period of political opposition, during which they had only exercised power at the local level. They were able to measure the very restricted power of a local elected official within the framework of the centralizing institutions of the Ve Republic. This is why, as soon as he came to power, F. Mitterrand tasked the Minister of the Interior and mayor of Marseille, Gaston Defferre, with drafting a decentralization law. [...]
