Communes in France: list. Administrative divisions of France

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

Centralized government is very costly in all possible plans. It is difficult for one authority to follow the various processes at all levels, it is not feasible and impractical. In this regard, it is easier to divide the territory of the state into various subjects, thereby optimizing the life of the citizens of the country. Communes in France, which we will consider today, are the fifth level of administrative division of land in this country. We offer to figure out what it is.

What is this unit

A commune in France is a unit of administrative division. Such territories are analogous to civilian townships and include municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemünden in Germany, and some lands in Italy. In Britain, for example, there are no exact equivalents to this concept, since communes resemble parts of urban areas that are territorially closer toperipherals.

Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are given significant powers to govern the localities and land of a particular area. They are the fifth level administrative divisions of France.

The difference between communes and localities

Communes vary widely in size and area, from large cities with millions of inhabitants, such as Paris, to small villages with a handful of inhabitants. They have names, but not all geographic areas or groups of people living together are such communities. The difference lies in the lack of managerial authority. With the exception of the municipalities of the largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France. They are governed by elected officials (mayor and "municipality") with broad autonomous powers to implement national policy.

The origin of the term "commune" in the British historical context is somewhat biased, and implies a connection with socialist political movements or sentiments, a collectivist lifestyle or a certain history (after the recreation of the Paris Commune of 1871, which would be more appropriately called in English as "the uprising of Paris"). The French word commune came into use in the 12th century. The term is still used to this day to refer to a large gathering of people unitedgeographically (from the Latin communis - "things that have been united").

How many communes are there in France?

As of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France, of which 36,552 were in Central France and 129 abroad. That is, this number includes lands in Canada, the USA, Germany, Italy. French communes still largely reflect the fragmentation of the country into villages or parishes since the Revolution.

Local government in France

Each of the communes of the French Republic has a mayor and a council of municipal deputies who govern with equivalent powers, no matter how big the entity. The only exception is the city of Paris, where the local police are in the hands of the state, not the mayor of Paris. This homogeneity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which, through its impact, sought to do away with the local, local peculiarities and imbalances of status that existed in the kingdom.

French law provides for significant differences in the size of municipalities in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of its election, the maximum allowable pay to the mayor and his deputies, and the limits of municipal election campaign funding (among other features) depend on the population that belongs to a particular commune.

Large communes

According to a law established in 1982, three French public entities also have a special status:these are Paris, Marseille and Lyon. The urban area is the only administrative division below a commune in the French Republic. This only applies to the listed territories.

These municipalities should not be confused with the arrondissements, which are subdivisions of French departments: communes are considered legal entities, while municipal arrondissements, on the contrary, have no official capacity and no budget of their own.

The rights and obligations of these entities are governed by the Code of Collective Territorial Units (CGCT), which replaced the Code of Commons (except for personnel matters) with the adoption of the law of February 21, 1996 and resolution No. 2000-318 of April 7, 2000.

From 1794 to 1977, except for a few brief intervals, Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than the smallest village.

Demography in numbers

The average population of the communities in the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again, this is a very small number, and here France stands out among all European countries due to the lowest number of inhabitants of all areas. Communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may have a smaller surface area, but they are more populated. This fact of French communities can be compared with Italy, where in 2001 the average population of communes was 2,343, with Belgium (11,265) or even Spain (564).

Betweenterritorial entities there are pronounced differences in size. As mentioned, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants, such as Paris, a city of 10,000 inhabitants, or simply a village of 10 households. It is generally accepted that the average number of members of a commune should be about 380 inhabitants, but such statistics do not always find application in the actual division of subjects.

Only 8% of the French population live in 57% of the communities, while 92% are concentrated in the remaining 43% of the territories. From this it follows that the difference between the figures reflecting the population in the communes is simply enormous.

Saint-Denis

Consider some of the communities located in France: Saint-Denis will be the first of them. It is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris. Saint-Denis is located 9.4 km from the center of the capital. The population, according to data for 2006, was 7123 people, the area - 1.77 square meters. m. The subject is named in honor of the first bishop of Paris, Saint Denis. His grave, located on a hill, has become a haven for pilgrims.

Pate

The next subject we are considering in France is the commune of Pathé. According to the latest data, its population is 2064 people, the area is 13.8 square kilometers. m. It is located north of the center of France. The commune is known for its involvement in the Hundred Years' War. The Battle of the Pates (June 18, 1429) was the culmination of the Loire Campaign in the Hundred Years' War between the French and the British in north-central France.

The last two mentioned, but notlast in importance, communes in France: Nice and Marseille.

Nice is the fifth most populous city in the country. There are about a million people in the subject, the area is 721 square meters. Nice is located on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This commune is often the choice of tourists.

Marseille

Marseille is the second largest city in France. The capital of the historical province of Provence, it is now the central subject of the Bouches-du-Rhone department and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is located on the south coast of France, covers an area of 241 square kilometers and had a population of 852,516 in 2012.