Review article
From Paris to Greater Paris: An Old Project, a New Approach
Michèle Breuillard
; Centre d’études et de recherches administratives, politiques et sociales, University of Lille 2, France
Abstract
Despite the constitutional principles of unitary state and uniformed local authorities, as the capital of France, the city of Paris is given a special status due to its size and conurbation effect that are unequalled in the country. Because it is located at the heart of a state with a long-standing tradition of centralization, the Parisian Region has passed through many dedicated reforms that have tried to establish relevant institutions and ways of control. At present, it is structured
as one region, eight départements including the City of Pars (Ville de Paris), which is both a commune and a département, and numerous joint inter-communal bodies and specialized agencies, for which the Government claims that they stall economic development in the whole Region of Ile-de-France and in the whole country. Along with the problem of rather difficult management of this ‘multilayer-cake’ shaped structure, there is also additional problem between the right-wing Government and the Left-Green coalition-controlled Region and
Paris City councils. Rather than an institutional reform, the Government has imposed a sustainable development strategy based on improving the regional public transport network and building new economic development zones. Moreover, this strategy aims at bypassing the regional transport authority lead by the Regional Council. An urban development corporation (Société du Grand
Paris) has been established under the central government’s control to hold the project’s ownership and to manage the development and building operations. There we find unprecedented arrangements that are far from the constitutional principles of local autonomy. It is worth questioning whether central government is trying to get back to the old centralized republic. Furthermore, one can wonder if the Grand Paris Reform Act can account for the recent evolution of the French model of local government, from area-based democracy to functional
democracy.
Keywords
special status of capital; City of Paris; local government – France
Hrčak ID:
132672
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2012.
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