OK, not the most exciting title for a post, but an interesting article in Le Monde (original here) discusses Jacques Attali’s proposal to abolish departments – the French level of local government roughly equivalent to an English county – and distribute powers to regions and groups of communes. It won’t surprise those who’ve watched English local government reform in action that there’s been a big negative reaction to the proposal from existing departmental councillors. The specifically French twist on this is that because of the custom of cumul des mandats, whereby MPs often have local government offices as well, large numbers of MPs and Senators are also serving departmental councillors, and are therefore unlikely to push forward any changes.
hi, i am wondering if you can supply me with a historians view on the reforms of the local governments of the national assembly
The answer is: I don’t know enough about the issue, I’m afraid. I’ve worked in local government in the UK but not in France, and I only have a passing acquaintance with the French system.