Find the new article by Didier CHABAUD and Carlos MORENO, Directors of the Entrepreneurship Territory Innovation (ETI) Chair and Jean-Christophe FROMANTIN, Associate Researcher within the Chair.
The 106th Congress of French Mayors takes place November 19-21. How far has the decentralization process come? Why are relations between the State and local authorities increasingly conflictual?
France is a decentralized Republic, as stated in Article 1 of the Constitution. Yet this "decentralized organization" has been the subject of multiple movements over the past 40 years, and in recent years has given rise to contradictory tensions between the stated desire for decentralization, and tax reforms that tend to deprive local authorities of the reality of decision-making autonomy.
The long march towards decentralization
In 1947, Parisian macrocephaly was denounced by geographer Jean-François Gravier in a work that sounded like a diagnosis and infused public debate: "Paris and the French Desert". As early as the 1960s, the French government set up an "armed wing", the DATAR, to drive forward a policy of regional planning, rebalancing in favor of regional metropolises and medium-sized towns, and modernizing transport systems. Local authorities also played their part. The 1982 Decentralization Act marked the transfer of numerous powers from the State to local authorities. In 2003, Act II of decentralization went even further: the Constitution enshrined decentralization in its first article. Derogatory experimentation became possible, and a new package of powers was transferred to local authorities, including economic development, tourism and housing.