France

F

2

Communes, Departments, and Regions

Among the three levels of local government, communes are the smallest. Communes range in size from tiny villages to sections of large metropolitan areas. At the next level of government are the departments, many of which take their names from mountains, rivers, and other local geographical features. The departments are grouped into regions, the top level of subnational government. Each region, department, and commune has a directly elected council and executive.

The commune, an important component of French democracy, dates to pre-Revolutionary France. Each commune has a mayor and municipal council. The mayor, who is elected by the council, is responsible for preparing meetings of the council and for implementing its decisions. For certain purposes, including registration of births, marriages, and deaths, the mayor also represents the national government. The council determines the commune’s budget and local taxes and makes decisions regarding municipal services. Individual communes often band together to provide certain municipal services cooperatively. Before 1982 communes were strictly supervised by representatives of the national government.

Departments vary in population from tens of thousands of people to more than 2 million. Each department is administered by a general council, which elects its own president. The council votes for a budget; provides departmental services, such as health and welfare; and drafts local regulations. A representative of the national government attends council meetings and is authorized to take steps to ensure public order, safety, and security. Before 1982, a prefect appointed by the national government exercised extensive authority within the department and played a key role in centralizing decision-making authority in the hands of the national government. Today the powers of the prefect are limited to ensuring that departmental policies do not conflict with national legislation.

The regions correspond roughly to France’s historic provinces. The primary focus of regional government is economic and social planning. Compared to the other levels of subnational government, the regions deliver few services to residents and employ few public officials. Each region is administered by an elected regional council. The president of the council, elected by the council from among its members, serves as the region’s executive. A representative appointed by the national government speaks on behalf of the national government at council meetings and directs national government services in the region.

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The city of Paris, the capital and seat of the most important national institutions, was formerly administered under a system designed to ensure tight central control. There was no mayor. Instead, a prefect of Paris and a prefect of the police, both appointed by the national government, exercised control. Under legislation passed in 1975, Paris became a department governed like any other, except that supervision of the police continued under a prefect appointed by the central government. Paris was permitted to have a municipal administration, similar to other French cities, with a mayor chosen by an elected council. The membership of the council, known as the Conseil de Paris, is determined by elections in 20 arrondissements (districts). In 1977 Jacques Chirac became the first mayor of Paris under the Fifth Republic.

G

The Overseas Territories and Departments

France’s remaining overseas dependencies are the last vestiges of a once-vast colonial empire. By the early 20th century the French empire included colonies in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Indian and Pacific oceans. These dependencies enjoyed varying degrees of integration into the French polity. Algeria, for example, was treated almost as if it were just another part of metropolitan France. Resistance to French rule in the colonies grew after World War II (1939-1945), first in Indochina, then Algeria, triggering long and bloody military conflicts (see First Indochina War and Algerian War of Independence). France’s forced withdrawal from these territories preceded a wave of decolonization throughout its empire. From 1954 to 1962 most of France’s overseas possessions sought and ultimately gained formal independence. Since 1962, several additional territories have sought and received independence, including the Comoros Islands in 1975, French Somaliland (now Djibouti) in 1977, and New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in 1980.

During the first decades of the Fifth Republic, France’s overseas dependencies were known collectively as the French Community. Members of the community cooperated in matters of foreign policy, defense policy, and economic policy. The French president played an important leadership role in community affairs. The wholesale disappearance of its former colonies, however, prompted France in 1995 to repeal the constitutional provisions that established the French Community.

Today France maintains four overseas territories, four overseas departments, and two special status areas. The overseas territories enjoy substantial autonomy over internal affairs, although France provides defense and oversees their legal and criminal justice systems. In contrast, the overseas departments and special status islands are much like departments in metropolitan France; they are administered by elected councils and by a prefect who represents France. Combined, these overseas regions contribute 22 representatives to the 577-seat National Assembly in Paris.

The overseas territories are French, which includes the island of Tahiti; New Caledonia; the Wallis and Futuna islands in the Pacific Ocean; and French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The overseas departments are Guadeloupe, a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea; Martinique, a Caribbean island; French Guiana, situated on the northern coast of South America; and Réunion, an island group in the Indian Ocean. The special status areas are Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, an island collectivity off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Mayotte, an island that chose to remain tied to France when the rest of the Comoros opted for independence.

H

Political Parties

Political factions have long competed for power in France. The origins of organized political parties in France can be traced back to the Third Republic. Today French parties span the full political spectrum, from far left to far right. During the Third and Fourth republics, numerous poorly organized political parties competed for power. Individual parties rarely succeeded in winning a parliamentary majority, and coalitions of parties were needed to form governments. Political alliances shifted continually, leading to weak, unstable governments.

The introduction of a strong presidential system during the Fifth Republic greatly reduced the number of political parties. Many parties merged or joined coalitions with other groups to enhance their political influence. Since the election of Charles de Gaulle, the Fifth Republic’s first president, most political parties have served mainly as organizations to mobilize support for particular presidential candidates. As the identities of the candidates change from one election to the next, so the parties change their names and alter their platforms. Party politics in the Fifth Republic are more stable and coherent than they were under earlier republics. Compared with political parties in other Western democracies, however, most French parties remain weakly organized with small, often passive, memberships.

There are several important political parties and coalitions in France. On the right is the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), a coalition initially named the Union for the Presidential Majority, which had formed in 2002 to promote the reelection of President Jacques Chirac. The UMP was created by the merger of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) and by a bloc of leaders from the Union for French Democracy (UDF). Founded by Chirac in 1976, the RPR espoused a modern form of Gaullism, a political philosophy that, among other things, championed a strong national government and an aggressive foreign policy. The Union for French Democracy (UDF) was originally closely tied to former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The UDF, which continues as an independent political force, supports European integration and free-market policies. On the extreme right is the National Front (FN), led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, and the National Republican Movement (MNR), founded by Le Pen’s former deputy, Bruno Mégret. The FN and MNR espouse nationalist, anti-immigrant platforms.

On the left of the political spectrum is the Socialist Party, founded in the early 20th century and reformed by François Mitterrand. Under the leadership of Mitterrand, who held the presidency from 1981 to 1995, the Socialist Party pursued a moderate socialist program and promoted closer economic and political cooperation within the European Union (EU). The French Communist Party, once a powerful political bloc, has seen its share of the vote decline steadily in recent decades. In the 1950s and 1960s the French Communists typically won 25 percent of the vote in national elections; today the party receives less than 10 percent of the vote. Environmentalist parties, including the Green Party, have grown in importance, capturing about 5 percent of the vote in the 2002 elections to the National Assembly.

The French electoral system influences the behavior of political parties in legislative races. A candidate for a seat in the National Assembly must compete in two rounds of voting, unless the candidate claims more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. Typically, the two leading candidates who meet in the second round represent parties on the left and right. Other parties on the left and right often withdraw their candidates from the second round to improve the chances of candidates on their side of the political divide. Agreements between parties often specify in advance which party will withdraw in favor of the other. Sometimes, such agreements between parties are concluded even before the first round of voting. These agreements can promote electoral alliances, and sometimes even shared platforms among parties.

I

Social Services

France established a comprehensive system of social security in 1946, after World War II. Social security is a right of citizenship in France: The constitution explicitly guarantees a minimal standard of living and health care to all French citizens. France spends about 25 percent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) on social security, significantly more than is spent in the United Kingdom or United States. Nearly 100 percent of the French population is covered by the social security system.

Universal, compulsory social insurance provides income to retirees, survivors of retirees, people unable to work, the unemployed, the sick, and families with dependent children. It also reimburses much of the cost of health care. More broadly, the social security system defrays virtually all of the cost of higher education and subsidizes some housing costs, especially for people with low incomes. France has a national minimum wage, which is adjusted periodically to account for changes in the cost of living.

The social insurance system is financed largely from payroll taxes, with a smaller percentage contributed from the national government’s general budget. The largest categories of expenditure are retirement and survivorship pensions. France’s aging population—a demographic shift underway in many industrialized nations—has raised concerns about the government’s ability to meet ever-rising pension costs. Expenditures on health care, maternity and family benefits, and unemployment benefits are also significant.

J

Civil Service

Nearly 20 percent of the French labor force is employed in public administration at the various levels of government. Professional, highly trained civil servants staff most public sector jobs. Public sector employees usually must pass competitive civil service entrance examinations. Other examinations permit successful candidates to enter elite institutions of higher learning to prepare them for careers in the civil service. These institutions include the Ecole Nationale, founded in 1945, and the Ecole Polytechnique, founded in 1794.

The French civil service consists of strict hierarchies at the national, regional, and local levels. Each level is associated with a particular set of public jobs and a particular path of career advancement. The elite corps, which staff the national government’s highest technical and administrative positions, are known as the grands corps de l’Etat. Most civil servants are members of unions.