Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung

Europäische Länderberichte

Frankreich: Wandlungen des jakobinischen Staates  faire mieux avec moins?

Sabine Kuhlmann

S. 263-274

France has been traditionally considered as one of the most centralized administrative models in the world. Against this background, decentralization policies undertaken since the beginning of the 1980s appear to have acted as a catalyst for deep institutional changes. Yet, opinions regarding the effects of these changes remain divided. Diverging accounts on whether the reforms have produced a real system change or just some gradual adjustments, and whether decentralization has entailed improvements or rather decreases in public sector performance are yet to be consolidated in the academic, as well as political, field. This contribution concentrates on two dimensions of reform effects. On the one hand, it analyses, to what extent the French governments reform target to make it better with less (faire mieux avec moins) has been achieved so far. On the other hand, it focuses on the more far-reaching system effects of decentralization in examining changes in coordination and steering between the central state and the sub-national/ local levels of government. The objective is to evaluate the transformation of the traditionally indivisible Jacobin-centralist state into a divisible republic.

Zitiervorschlag für diesen Artikel:
Kuhlmann, Sabine 2009: Frankreich: Wandlungen des jakobinischen Staates  faire mieux avec moins?, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2009. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, S. 263-274.