The slow emergence of the french regions
By: LOUGHLIN, John
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ArticlePublisher: Bristol, UK : The Policy Press, October 2008Policy & Politics 36, 4, p. 559-571Abstract: The 1982 French decentralisation reforms upgraded the indirectly elected regional councils to fully-fledged subnational governments alongside the departments and communes. This article examines how regional governments have grown in importance, gradually gaining new powers and, through the system of state-region contracts, becoming the key subnational level of economic development planning. They have also forged new contractual relations with the associations of communes. Their advance continued fitfully until halted by the election of President Sarkozy in 2007 and the prospects are that regional government will continue to evolve, but in a slower, more piecemeal way through policy adjustment rather than institutional reform
The 1982 French decentralisation reforms upgraded the indirectly elected regional councils to fully-fledged subnational governments alongside the departments and communes. This article examines how regional governments have grown in importance, gradually gaining new powers and, through the system of state-region contracts, becoming the key subnational level of economic development planning. They have also forged new contractual relations with the associations of communes. Their advance continued fitfully until halted by the election of President Sarkozy in 2007 and the prospects are that regional government will continue to evolve, but in a slower, more piecemeal way through policy adjustment rather than institutional reform
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