Local government reform between ‘exogenous’ and ‘endogenous’ driving forces

Abstract

The article attempts to analyse institutional reforms in the multi-level system of the French capital city. The key questions are the developments in central – local relations and what factors influenced these changes over the last century. The author seeks to identify ‘critical junctures’ in institutional development and explore their impact on the relationships between state and municipality on the one hand and between upper and lower tiers of city-government on the other. Looking at institution building in Paris as the dependent variable the article takes a primarily institutionalist approach in identifying the relevant factors which explain local government reform in the capital city (‘what shapes institutions?’).

Key words:

• Capital city
• city of Paris
• decentralization
• local government
• new institutionalism
• public administration

Notes

1 The article draws on findings of a research project on ‘Politico-administrative structures in European metropolitan cities: Berlin, London and Paris in comparison’, which was funded by the German Science Council (DFG) and directed by Manfred Röber and Hellmut Wollmann. The author was responsible for the ‘Paris case study’ of the project. Given this selection of three European cities, Berlin and London will be used as reference cases in this article (for conceptual reasons see Röber and Schröter 2004 and further below). The author particularly wishes to acknowledge Melody Houk for fruitful critique vis-à-vis this article and for having made available unpublished findings of her PhD thesis.

2 As the main focus of this article is the capital city's institutional history, we will in particular refer to the Ville de Paris that is the core-city of Paris (intra muros) with its 2.1 million inhabitants spread over a comparatively small territory of only 105 sq. km, while leaving aside the Ile-de-France region. It should be recalled that the metropolitan area of the capital city, including some hundreds of communes and seven départements, does not form part of the Parisian city-government.

3 Between 1871 and 1973 nearly 100 proposals for reform of the Paris administration have been submitted to parliament none of which succeeded (O'Leary 1987: 373).

4 One should also recall that big-city mayors in France have often reached top national positions which particularly applies to Jacques Chirac holding the position of the French prime minister from 1986 to 1988 and succeeding in the presidential elections of 1995.

5 The territorial cut of the twenty Parisian districts dates back to the territorial reform of 1859 under Napoléon III as a result of which the city's territory more than doubled (from 3.441 ha to 7.802 ha; see Drago 1979: 3 ff.).

6 It should also be recalled that the law of 27 February 2002 on ‘democracy of proximity’ adopted by the socialist – green government under Jospin stipulated the building up of quarter councils obligatorily for all French cities of more than 80,000 inhabitants. Since then, they have also been granted their own (limited) resources including a small budget, staff and office rooms.

7 For a more detailed institutional comparison of Paris city and Berlin see Kuhlmann (2005a 2005b).

8 Based on the law of 10 July 1964 the traditional départements Seine and Seine-et-Oise were subdivided into three départements each. The third département of the Paris region, Seine-et-Marne, remained almost unchanged. Paris city was, in additional to its municipal status, conferred the status of its own département to (ville-département) situated in the centre of the other seven newly created départements in the Seine region (Hauck Walsh 1968: 54).