Professional paper

The Status of French »New Communes«

Stéphane Guérard ; University of Lille2, Lille, France

Abstract

French decentralisation reform includes a reduction in the number of communes (36,686 on January 1st, 2009), through the promotion of »new communes«. After the failures of 1959 and 1971, a new attempt started in 2010. The “new commune” is an example of a new, improved, and modernized system for merging communes. It is a simpler and more flexible than the earlier system enacted in the Marcellin Law of 1971. From a modern perspective, mostly inspired by
the school of the New Public Management, the merger of communes should save money and improve local public management. Legal and institutional analysis shows certain advantages and some critical points in that regard. The maintenance of “delegated or associated” communes is not a measure of the efficiency of French administrative organisation; especially since the new communes do not have a mandate to eliminate the establishments for intercommunal cooperation
(EPCIs) to which the communes concerned will belong. The absence of any financial incentive in case of merger does not add much to the attractiveness of territorial mergers.

Keywords

decentralisation – France; territorial organisation; mergers system; new commune; local public management; administrative efficiency

Hrčak ID:

132753

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/132753

Publication date:

15.3.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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