The Impact of Metropolis Multiplication on French Territorial Organization: A Study on Decentralization and Institutional Changes

Extract

[...] published on August in the specialized magazine The Framework Letter, Stéphane Menu points out the ambiguities of metropolitanization à la française. But before going further into the author's remarks, we need first to set out some contextual and definitional elements in order to report their exact tenor. Thus, compared to some of its close neighbors such as Germany, the United Kingdom or Italy, whose historical and territorial construction has given rise to a plurality of urban centers, France, on the contrary, has inherited a strong centralizing tradition which has produced an unbalanced territorial organization in favor of its capital. [...]

[...] As explained by Philippe Briand, president of the agglomeration of Tours, this financial windfall will allow for the financing of transportation infrastructure and in particular two tram lines as well as a link between the city center and the nearby TGV station located in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. The status of metropolis is therefore a guarantee of a rapid development and a wider opening by favoring the flows of movement. Finally, the attractiveness of the status is explained by the absence of legal barriers to its establishment. In fact, the Constitution leaves the legislator a wide margin of maneuver in this matter. It is in this way that the Lyon metropolis was established on the basis of Article 72 of the Constitution. In its decision No. [...]

[...] Thus, if the metropolis was designed as the showcase of the new decentralized territorial organization its excessive multiplication has led to mutations that are carrying serious deviations (II). I. The metropolis, showcase of the new decentralized territorial organization The promotion of the metropolis coupled with that of the expanded regions aims to make the law of local authorities revolve around this new institutional couple. The metropolis is therefore called upon to play a leading role in tandem with the region By competition or by necessity, the status is then coveted by most large or medium-sized agglomerations A. [...]

[...] In short, for it, the objective sought by the various reforms is compromised, because by staying in the middle of the road, the metropolis has come to be added to the existing administrative ensemble, further complicating the levels. Ultimately, the metropolis as conceived has not come to be in reality, except for Paris which was already so. Some commentators even go so far as to speak of the « manipulation of the political concept of metropolis in the organization of the French territory The geographer François Hulbert still sees Paris and the French desert. [...]

[...] Globalization is therefore also reflected at the territorial level to converge the urban and economic. In these circumstances, France, like its European partners, has committed to reforming its territorial organization in order to integrate these new data. It is then a matter of introducing into the law of territorial collectivities strongly imbued with the municipalist and solidarist idea and articulated around uniforming legal notions a new paradigm rather 'economizing' and moving. In this sense, if the creation by the French legislator of the legal category of 'metropolis' did not initially have the expected success, large and medium-sized agglomerations are now fighting to be granted the status. [...]