Debbasch, Charles

L'administration des grandes villes en France - Paris : IIAP, avril/juin 1981

The problems facing large municipalitites are becoming ever more preoccupying. The traditional approaches applied to the specific circumstances of large towns have proved unsatisfactory, owing to a series of factors: inadequate structures even though a special status is given to large towns; persistent recourse to private law resources for service management; insufficient competencies in municipal staff; insufficient finance. Various reforms, some of which have been implemented, exist in blue-print. The problem is that these reforms apply both to large towns and the rest of 'communes', since they have the same status. And although these reforms take into account aspects of large towns, they nevertheless tend to concern mainly medium-size and small municipalities