The variable tightness of state control French local governments caught. Between autonomy and state regulations

Résumé 0

This article explores the transformations of the French model of territorial administration and how authority has changed hands since the middle of the 1970s by examining the mobilization of two main categories of actors: local elected officials, their associations and institutional support in the Senate on the one hand, and senior officials in central administrative positions, particularly in the Ministry of Budget, on the other hand. This article shall identify the contexts and mechanisms which allowed for circumstantial asymmetries in power to be translated into rules, thus modifying reform trajectories. It shall also highlight the loosening of State control, a phenomenon which transpired from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s and reached its zenith with the passing of decentralization laws. On the other hand, however, this article shall also illustrate why the implementation of the euro led to a sharp decline in the budgetary and fiscal autonomy of local authorities, as well to the adoption of policies to merge local governments, and how the sovereign debt crisis magnified the State's control over local and regional affairs.