New Governance of Urban Areas in France

Abstract

The paper analyses urban governance and decentralisation in France. It explains the “quiet revolution” that wants to set the legal base of French local government back to the drawing board with special focus on the reform of local government in urban areas. The context of the too many too small communes – at the heart of the reform programme – is described since it is a typically French evil (part 2). In the absence of any successful top-down policy of amalgamating communes, new communes are deemed to be the effective solution along with a new mapping of intercommunal joint bodies (part 3). Finally, the paper describes what the metropolis “à la française” consists of (part 4) with a special focus on Lyon – the perfect model for the whole country – and Paris and Aix-Marseille as the worst pupils in transition. France stands out as an important case where new powers bestowed upon metropolitan governments have curbed the jurisdictions of regional governments. The ambiguity over the powers and functions of local governments triggers obdurate turf wars between the two levels of government, which clearly indicates that the governance of any modern society needs to be simplified. If left unaddressed, competition – not coordination or cooperation – between regionalization and metropolitanisation, regionalization and local governments, governability and multilevel governance is likely to become the norm. The author concludes that France desperately needs an in-depth reform of its institutional architecture, which is regularly postponed. What is required is a simplification of governmental machinery: more efficiency in local policies, a clearer allocation of responsibilities, reduced expenses, and governance closer to citizens.