NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Commune in France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a gathering of people sharing a common life, from Latin communis, things held in common. // Metropolitan France As of January 1, 2004, metropolitan France is divided into: 22 rÃ©gions (although strictly speaking Corsica is in fact a territorial collectivity, not a rÃ©gion, but is referred to as a rÃ©gion in common speech) the rÃ©gions are divided into 96 dÃ©partements the... France is divided into 26 rÃ©gions: 21 of these are in the continental part of metropolitan France, one is Corse on the island of Corsica (although strictly speaking Corse is in fact a territorial collectivity, not a rÃ©gion, but is referred to as a rÃ©gion in common... RÃ©gion doutre-mer, or Overseas regions, is a recent designation given to the dÃ©partements doutre-mer which have similar powers to those of the rÃ©gions of metropolitan France. ... Template:France divisions levels, Junkyard Willie The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France and many former French colonies, roughly analogous to British counties. ... Under the 1946 Constitution of the Fourth Republic, the French colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana in the Caribbean and RÃ©union in the Indian Ocean became dÃ©partements doutre-mer (Overseas departments) or DOMs. ... The 100 French dÃ©partements are divided into 342 arrondissements. ... The canton is an administrative division of France. ... A communautÃ© urbaine (urban community in English) is the higher degree of intercommunal cooperation in France. ... A communautÃ© dagglomÃ©ration is a metropolitan government structure in France, created by the Loi ChevÃ©nement in 1999. ... A CommunautÃ© de communes is a federation of several municipalities in France. ... The municipal arrondissement (French: arrondissement municipal), more simply referred to as arrondissement, is a level of administrative division in France lower than the commune. ... A collectivitÃ© doutre-mer (in English Overseas Community) or COM, is an administrative division of France. ... Map of New Caledonia New Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-CalÃ©donie; popular names: Kanaky, Le caillou) is a French territory of 18,575 kmÂ² (7,172 sq. ... A pays doutre-mer (POM, French for overseas country) is an administrative division of France. ... A Territoire doutre-mer (TOM, French for Overseas territory) is an administrative division of France. ... The Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean (French: ÃŽles Ã‰parses or ÃŽles Ã©parses de locÃ©an indien) comprise four small coral islands and an atoll in the Indian Ocean. ... Medieval Latin refers to the Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

French communes are roughly equivalent to US incorporated municipalities/cities. French communes have no exact equivalent in the United Kingdom, having a status somewhere in between that of English districts and civil parishes. Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to present) (Latin: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York, New York Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government â€¢ President â€¢ Vice President Federal republic... Non-metropolitan districts (usually just called Districts) are local government sub-divisions of English Counties. ... In England a civil parish (usually just parish) is the lowest unit of local government, lower than districts or counties. ...

A French commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants like Paris, a town of 10,000, or just a 10-person village. , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ...

General characteristics

Total number of communes

As of 1 January 2004, there were 36,782 communes in France, 36,568 of them in metropolitan France and 214 of them overseas. This is a staggering number, much higher than in any other European country. This peculiarity is explained in detail in the history section below; briefly, French communes still largely reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution more than two centuries ago. January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in... Metropolitan France (French: la France mÃ©tropolitaine, or just la MÃ©tropole) refers to the part of France in Europe, including Corsica, as opposed to the overseas departments and overseas territories, which, while integral parts of the French Republic, are regarded as Overseas France (la France doutre-mer, or... The European Union or the EU is an intergovernmental and supranational union of 25 European countries, known as member states. ... A parish is a type of administrative subdivision. ... The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period in the history of France. ...

It should also be noted that, unlike the United States, the whole of the territory of the French Republic, outside of some small overseas possessions, is divided into communes. On the territory of the French Republic there is no such thing as unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority. Any piece of land in the French Republic is part of a commune, both in metropolitan France and in its overseas extensions (including uninhabited mountains or rain forests), with only the exceptions of: It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with unincorporated community. ... Metropolitan France (French: la France mÃ©tropolitaine, or just la MÃ©tropole) refers to the part of France in Europe, including Corsica, as opposed to the overseas departments and overseas territories, which, while integral parts of the French Republic, are regarded as Overseas France (la France doutre-mer, or... A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall. ...

The Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean (in French ÃŽles Ã©parses de locÃ©an indien) are five islands of the Indian Ocean with no permanent population, Bassas da India, Europa, Juan de Nova, Glorioso, and Tromelin. ...

Surface area of a typical commune

In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 is 14.88 km² (5.75 sq. miles, or 3,676 acres). The median area of metropolitan France's communes (as of 1999 census) is even smaller, at 10.73 km² (4.14 sq. miles, or 2,651 acres). The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. To help compare sizes of different geographic regions, we list here areas between 10 kmÂ² (1000 hectares) and 100 kmÂ² (10,000 hectares). ... In probability theory and statistics, the median is a number that separates the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution from the lower half. ... To help compare sizes of different geographic regions, we list here areas between 10 kmÂ² (1000 hectares) and 100 kmÂ² (10,000 hectares). ...

This median area is smaller than in most of the European countries, such as Italy where the median area of communes (comuni) is 22 km² (8.5 sq. miles), Belgium where it is 40 km² (15.5 sq. miles), Spain where it is 35 km² (13.5 sq. miles), or Germany where the majority of Länder have communes (gemeinden) with a median area above 15 km² (5.8 sq. miles). In Italy, the comune, (plural comuni) is the basic administrative unit of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality. ... Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as LÃ¤nder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). ... Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as LÃ¤nder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). ...

This very small size of the French communes is due to the extremely high number of communes, mentioned above, in a medium-sized territory such as France. In 2000, Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as LÃ¤nder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). ... The Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz, sometimes Lower Palatinate or Niederpfalz) occupies rather more than a quarter of the German Bundesland (federal state) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and contains the towns of Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Pirmasens, Landau and Speyer. ... Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 Bundesländer in Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central Germany and is among the smaller of the countrys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 sq. ...

The communes of French overseas départements such as Réunion and Guyane are large by French standards, larger than communes of metropolitan France. They usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances between them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes. Under the 1946 Constitution of the Fourth Republic, the French colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana in the Caribbean and RÃ©union in the Indian Ocean became dÃ©partements doutre-mer (Overseas departments) or DOMs. ...

Population of a typical commune

The median population of metropolitan France's communes as of the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may have a smaller surface area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium where it was 11,265 inhabitants, or even Spain where it was 564 inhabitants. In probability theory and statistics, the median is a number that separates the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution from the lower half. ... The aim of this page is to act as a comparison between European countries in many different aspects, such as population, GDP, life expectancy, etc. ... The Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz, sometimes Lower Palatinate or Niederpfalz) occupies rather more than a quarter of the German Bundesland (federal state) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and contains the towns of Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Pirmasens, Landau and Speyer. ...

The median population given here should not hide the fact that differences in size are extreme among French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a village of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a couple hundred inhabitants; but there also exists a small number of communes that are highly populated.

In metropolitan France, there are 20,982 communes with fewer than 500 inhabitants, which is 57.4% of the total number of communes. In these 20,982 communes there live only 4,638,000 inhabitants, or 7.7% of the total population of metropolitan France. In other words, only 7.7% of the French population live in 57.4% of the communes, while 92.3% of the population concentrate in just 42.6% of the French communes.

Status of the communes

Despite enormous differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal) which manage the commune from the mairie (city hall), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune (with the city of Paris as the only exception, where the city police are in the hands of the central state, not in the hands of the mayor of Paris). This uniformity of status is a clear legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences of status that existed in the kingdom of France. In French, a hÃ´tel de ville or mairie is a town hall (and not a hotel). ... Small-town post office and town hall A city hall, or town hall is the headquarters of a citys (or towns) administration. ...

The size of a commune still matters, however, in two domains: French law determines the size of the municipal council according to the population of the commune; and the size of the population determines which voting process is used for the election of the municipal council. Municipal council (conseil municipal)(maire) Despite enormous differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal) which manage the commune from the mairie (city hall), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune (with...

Since the PML Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements: these are Paris, Marseille, and Lyon. Municipal arrondissement is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic, but it exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements. The municipal arrondissement (French: arrondissement municipal), more simply referred to as arrondissement, is a level of administrative division in France lower than the commune. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... City motto: Actibus immensis urbs fulget Massiliensis. ... City motto: Avant, avant, Lion le melhor. ... The municipal arrondissement (French: arrondissement municipal, pronounced ), more simply referred to as arrondissement, is a level of administrative division in France lower than the commune. ... The 100 French départements are divided into 342 arrondissements. ... The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas rÃ©gions. ...

French communes have legal "personality" since 1837: they are considered legal entities, and they have legal capacity. Municipal arrondissements have no legal personality, and no budget of their own. A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were an individual for certain purposes. ...

The rights and obligations of communes are governed by the Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

History of the French Communes

French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789-1790. The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period in the history of France. ...

Kingdom of France

Before the French Revolution, there existed nothing such as the communes we know today. The lowest level of administrative division was the parish (paroisse), and there were up to 60,000 of them in the kingdom of France. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the agricultural land around the village. It should be remembered that France was the most populous country of Europe until the 19th century, more so even than Russia, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants before the Industrial Revolution (England had only 6 million inhabitants before the Industrial Revolution) -- this accounts for the stunningly-high number of parishes in the kingdom of France. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over a "realm of 100,000 steeples". A parish is a type of administrative subdivision. ... A Watt steam engine in Madrid. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my [birth]right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“ Total (mid-2004) â€“ Total (2001 Census) â€“ Density Ranked...

However these parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually there was only a fabric committee (conseil de fabrique), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties -- and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. The priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials, since the Council of Trent and several royal edicts under kings Louis XIV and Louis XV. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places, the local feudal lord (seigneur) in his castle was still intervening in the village’s affairs, still collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée, still determining which agricultural land was to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. The Council of Trent is reckoned by the Roman Catholic Church to be the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of the universal church. ... Louis XIV (Louis-DieudonnÃ©) (September 5, 1638 â€“ September 1, 1715), reigned as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death at 77 years old. ... Louis XV (February 16, 1710 â€“ May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-AimÃ©), was King of France from 1715 to 1774. ... Corvée, or corvée labor, is a term used in feudal societies. ...

On the other hand, there existed chartered cities that had received charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself, or from local counts or dukes (such as the city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to several hundreds in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall. These cities had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, they had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore quite a resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: 1- these municipal bodies were not democratic, they were usually in the hands of some rich bourgeois families upon whom, over time, nobility had been conferred, so they can be better labeled as oligarchies rather than municipal democracies; 2- there was no uniform status for these chartered cities, each one having its own status and specific organization. A charter is a document bestowing certain rights on a town, city, university, land or institution; sometimes used as a loan of money. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Separation barrier. ... Oligarchy is a form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). ...

In the north of France, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south of France cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on the same footing, and rendered decisions in collegiality; but for certain purposes there was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, being a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called: provost of the merchants (prévôt des marchands) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen, Orléans, Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg; maître échevin in Metz; maire royal in Nancy; or prévôt in Valenciennes. City motto: Lilia sola regunt lunam undas castra leonem. ... Jurat (through French from mediaeval Latin juratus, one sworn, Lat. ... The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French (helpÂ· info), in local Toulouse accent (helpÂ· info)) (Occitan... A provost (introduced into Scots from French) was the leader of a Scottish burgh council, the equivalent of a mayor in other parts of the English-speaking world. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... City motto: Avant, avant, Lion le melhor. ... City motto: Actibus immensis urbs fulget Massiliensis. ... Location within France Rouen Cathedral The entrance to Rouen Cathedral Abbey church of Saint-Ouen, (chevet) in Rouen Rouen, medieval house Rouen (pronounced in French, sometimes also ) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France, and presently the capital of the Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy) rÃ©gion. ... OrlÃ©ans cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Cross, built from 1278 to 1329; after being pillaged by Huguenots in the 1560s, the Bourbon kings restored it in the 17th century. ... Bayonne. ... City motto: â€“ City proper (commune) RÃ©gion Nord-Pas de Calais DÃ©partement Nord (59) Mayor Martine Aubry (PS) (since 2001) Area 39. ... Location within France Montpellier (Occitan MontpelhiÃ¨r) is a city in the south of France. ... City motto: â€“ City proper (commune) RÃ©gion Alsace DÃ©partement Bas-Rhin (67) Mayor Fabienne Keller (UMP) (since 2001) Land area 78. ... City motto: Si paix dedans, paix dehors (French: If peace inside, peace outside) City proper (commune) RÃ©gion Lorraine DÃ©partement Moselle (57) Mayor Jean-Marie Rausch Area 41. ... Location within France Nancy (pronounced in French) (German: Nanzig) is a city and commune which is the prÃ©fecture (capital) of the Meurthe-et-Moselle dÃ©partement, in the Lorraine rÃ©gion of northeastern France. ... Valenciennes is a town and commune in northern France in the Nord dÃ©partement on the Scheldt river. ...

French Revolution

On July 14, 1789, at the end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille, the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles, was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V, their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from the king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another local representative of the king, and no longer as the embodiment of a free municipality. July 14 is the 195th day (196th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 170 days remaining. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Bastille The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoineâ€”Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine. ... Jacques de Flesselles (1721â€“July 14, 1789) was a French provost, a post roughly equivalent to mayor. ... Charles V the Wise (French: Charles V le Sage) (January 31, 1338 â€“ September 16, 1380) was king of France (1364 to 1380) and a member of the Valois Dynasty. ...

Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On December 14, 1789, the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently-created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly-speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes, the National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment (les Lumières). They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Louis XVI (August 23, 1754, Versailles â€“ January 21, 1793, Paris) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French from 1791 to 1793. ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The National Constituent Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale constituante) was formed from the National Assembly on July 9, 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. ... Cartesian means of or relating to the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ...

Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform all across the country: the whole of France would be divided into départements, themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor (maire) at their head, and a municipal council (conseil municipal) elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the tens of thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house (mairie) had to be built in each of these villages, which would house the meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into tens of thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas rÃ©gions. ... The 100 French départements are divided into 342 arrondissements. ... The canton is an administrative division of France. ... In French, a hÃ´tel de ville or mairie is a town hall (and not a hotel). ... Portrait of Mirabeau HonorÃ© Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, (often referred to simply as Mirabeau) (March 9, 1749 - April 2, 1791) was a French writer, popular orator and statesman. ...

On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn from the priests of the parishes and became the responsibility of the mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional church ceremony, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God ("Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage." – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in the mairies. These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war, with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by the prefect, the local representative of the central government. September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A civil war is a war in which parties within the same ethnicity, or distribution of wealth. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... A prefect (from the Latin praefectus, perfect participle of praeficio, to make in front, i. ...

Trends after the French Revolution

Today, in their general principles, French communes are still very much the same as those that were established at the beginning of the French Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of the municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to the revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (the départements likewise), with only the central state having legal "personality". By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to the chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were an individual for certain purposes. ... In the context of the French Revolution, a Jacobin originally meant a member of the Jacobin Club (1789-1794). ... The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas rÃ©gions. ... A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were an individual for certain purposes. ...

During the French Revolution approximately 41,000 communes were created ([1]), on a territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include the departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine, which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was less than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a very big number, without any comparison in the world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Savoie is a French dÃ©partement located in the Alps. ... Haute-Savoie is a French département, named after the Alps mountain range. ... Alpes_Maritimes is a département in the extreme southeast corner of France. ... At 1,320 kilometres (820 miles) and an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second, the Rhine (German Rhein, French Rhin, Dutch Rijn, Romansch: Rein, Italian: Reno) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe. ... Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. ...

Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, and the rural exodus all have depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90% of communes and departments are exactly the same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. As a consequence, countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or less. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that there urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at the time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes! A Watt steam engine in Madrid. ... A world war is a military conflict affecting the majority of the worlds major nations. ... Rural exodus is a term used to describe the migratory patterns that normally occur in a region following the mechanisation of agriculture. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ...

Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris became rigid. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day density of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing the number of communes by two-thirds or more (the communes (gemeinden) of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in just a few years), France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, and 36,568 in 2004 (in metropolitan France). Charles Louis NapolÃ©on Bonaparte (April 20, 1808, Paris, France - January 9, 1873, Chislehurst, Kent, England) was a President of France, and later, Emperor of the French. ... Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as LÃ¤nder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). ...

France is by far the country with the largest number of communes in Europe. For instance, reunited Germany (one-third more inhabitants than France) has only 13,400 communes (Gemeinden, as of Dec. 31, 2002), and Italy (almost as many inhabitants as France) has only 8,101 communes (comuni, as of 2001 Italian census). In Europe, only Switzerland has as high a density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last ten years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: 1- the European Union (of 15 members, before May 2004) is made up of approximately 75,000 communes, and metropolitan France alone accounts for 35,568 of these, which means 47.5% of the communes of the European Union are in metropolitan France alone (France represents 16% of the total population of the European Union of 15 members). 2- the United States, with a territory 14 times larger than the French Republic, and 4.7 times the population of the French Republic, has only 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships (as of the 2002 Census of Governments), compared with 36,782 communes in the French Republic. In Italy, the comune, (plural comuni) is the basic administrative unit of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality. ... Municipalities are the smallest government division in Switzerland. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Local government of the United States. ... A civil township is a widely-used unit of local government in the United States, subordinate to a county. ...

Current debate

For more than 30 years, there have been calls in France for a massive merger of communes, including such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). So far, however, local conservatism has been very strong, and no mandatory merging proposal ever has made it past committee in the French Parliament. In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law was a complete failure (only about 1,300 communes agreed to disappear and merge with other communes). The Cour des Comptes (Court of Accounts, also translated into Court of Financial Auditors) is a institution of the Government of France whose duty is to audit public institutions, as well as some private institutions. ... Raymond Marcellin Raymond Marcellin (August 19, 1914 - September 8, 2004) was a French politician. ...

So, complain those in favor of the merger, French cities have a ridiculously light weight compared to their European counterparts, because their limits still are those set more than 200 years ago. For instance, the city of Lyon is a small commune with only 445,500 inhabitants, which compares poorly with other European cities, whereas in fact the metropolitan area of Lyon has 1.65 million inhabitants and ranks as one of the major metropolises of Europe, on a par with a metropolitan area such as Munich. As a matter of fact, the population and economy of the metropolitan area of Munich is approximately comparable to the population and economy of the metropolitan area of Lyon, but the population of the commune (city) of Munich is about 1,265,000 inhabitants, compared with only 445,500 in the case of Lyon. A city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. ... City motto: Avant, avant, Lion le melhor. ... In France an aire urbaine (literally: urban area) is roughly the equivalent of a US Metropolitan Statistical Area. ... Munich and the Bavarian Alps Munich (German: MÃ¼nchen, (pronounced listen) is the largest city and capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ...

Mayors of French cities often complain that their significance is undervalued when they travel outside of France, due to the fact that they rule only a small territory at the center of wider metropolitan areas. A good example of this phenomenon is Paris: although the metropolitan area of Paris is one of the very few in the world to have more than 10 million inhabitants, the population of the city of Paris itself is only 2,125,000 inhabitants, which is even less than the population of the city of Rome (2,650,000 inhabitants), whose metropolitan area of 3 million inhabitants is not in the same league as the metropolitan area of Paris. , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus â€“ SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Area - City Proper 1285 kmÂ² Population - City (2004) - Metropolitan - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ...

At the other end of the scale, there exist some countryside communes which the rural exodus left with few inhabitants, and which struggle to maintain and manage such basic services as running water, garbage collection, or properly-paved communal roads. Rural exodus is a term used to describe the migratory patterns that normally occur in a region following the mechanisation of agriculture. ...

Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. A first obvious issue is that they reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. A more serious issue is that citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, who may be unaware or inattentive to their local needs. The Parti des Travailleurs far-left party has seized the issue and campaigns, by several means, against the regrouping of communes. The Party of the Workers (Parti des Travailleurs or PT), is a French political party which was formed by the Trotskyist Internationalist Communist Party (PCI) led by Pierre Boussel better known by his pseudonym Pierre Lambert (it was customary for senior leaders of the party to be known under pseudonyms...

Intercommunality

Aware of the inadequacy of the communal grid, but unable or unwilling to tackle local conservatism, French politicians have pushed forward the so-called "intercommunalilty" (intercommunalité). Resulting from statutes enacted by the French parliament in 1959, 1966, and 1992, independent communes may gather together and form a syndicate in charge of managing some services (such as garbage collection or running water) for all the communes in the syndicate. Indeed, over the years it has become more and more frequent in the countryside to see some large garbage containers parked on the side of communal roads and bearing the name and logo of the local syndicate of communes. In urban areas, communes may team up with the city at the core of the urban area and form a community in charge of managing public transportation or even local taxes together.

The Chevènement law in 1999 completely transformed the structures of intercommunality in France, abolishing some structures and creating new ones, and offering government money to entice communes to join intercommunal structures. Contrary to the failure of the Marcellin law in 1971, or the semi-success of former laws such as the statute enacted in 1966 which enabled urban communes to form urban communities, the Chevènement law has encountered a large success in its first five years, with a majority of French communes now involved in intercommunal structures. Jean-Pierre ChevÃ¨nement Jean-Pierre ChevÃ¨nement (born March 9, 1939 in Belfort) is a French politician. ... Raymond Marcellin Raymond Marcellin (August 19, 1914 - September 8, 2004) was a French politician. ...

These three structures are given varying levels of fiscal power, with the Community of Agglomeration and the Urban Community having most fiscal power, levying the local tax on corporations (taxe professionnelle) in their own name instead of those of the communes, and with the same level of taxation across the communes of the community. The communities must also manage some services previously performed by the communes, such as garbage collection or transport, like the old syndicates, but the law also makes it mandatory for the communities to manage other areas such as economic planning and development, housing projects, or environment protection. Communities of Communes are required to manage the least number of areas, leaving the communes more autonomous, while the Urban Communities are required to manage most matters, leaving the communes inside them with less autonomous power. A CommunautÃ© de communes is a federation of several municipalities in France. ... A communautÃ© dagglomÃ©ration is a metropolitan government structure in France, created by the Loi ChevÃ©nement in 1999. ... A communautÃ© urbaine (urban community in English) is the higher degree of intercommunal cooperation in France. ...

In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for the communes to team up and form communities. Communities of Communes are given the least amount of money per inhabitant, whereas Urban Communities are given the most amount of money per inhabitant, thus pushing the communes to form more integrated communities where they have less powers, which they would have been loath to do if it were not for government money.

The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures: quite a feat in such a conservative country as France. As of January 1, 2006, there were 2,558 such communities in metropolitan France (including 6 syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle, soon to disappear), made up of 32,826 communes (89.7% of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 51.98 million inhabitants, i.e. 85.7 % of the population of metropolitan France. January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Metropolitan France (French: la France mÃ©tropolitaine, or just la MÃ©tropole) refers to the part of France in Europe, including Corsica, as opposed to the overseas departments and overseas territories, which, while integral parts of the French Republic, are regarded as Overseas France (la France doutre-mer, or...

However these impressive results may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a Community of Communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into a Community of Communes, the new Community of Communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these Communities of Communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to the law.

In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together in the urban area. However in many places local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure, so that in some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to the benefit of poorer suburbs of the urban area. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposite political sides also may be suspicious of each other.

Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures, the main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a Community of Agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an Urban Community for fear of losing too many powers, and opted for a Community of Agglomeration, despite the fact that a Community of Agglomeration receives less government funds than an Urban Community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there, the suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the Paris metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures but all without the city of Paris.

One major problem with intercommunality, often raised, is the fact that the intercommunal structures do not have representatives directly elected by the people, so it is the representatives of each individual commune that sit in the new structure. As a consequence, civil servants and bureaucrats are the ones setting up the agenda and implementing it, with the elected representatives of the communes only endorsing key decisions. At the local level, this situation is quite like the one existing in Brussels, where power shared by many independent European states has resulted in that power being exercised by a bureaucracy not elected by citizens.

Future

The first five years of the 21st century have seen great changes at the communal level in France, but the situation still is unsettled. The new intercommunal structures, designed to solve the problem of a country with too many small communes, have met with clear success, but their powers -- as well as their relationship with the communes below them and the départements above them -- still need to be defined in practice. The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas rÃ©gions. ...

It is unclear yet where the trend is going. Will the intercommunal structures have representatives directly elected by the citizens in the future, as the Mauroy Report proposed in 2000? But then wouldn't this leave the communes as hollow administrative units? Already, a few well-known mayors of large French cities (communes) have abandoned their mayoral seats to become presidents of the Urban Communities, as in the case of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole. Or will these intercommunal structures break up, in the end, after the state stops transferring money? Or perhaps, as some believe, the Chevènement law was just a first step toward a massive merger of communes, an attempt to have the communes work together and see the advantages of it, before they are eventually merged. In any case, the debate is sure to rebound in the next few years. Pierre Mauroy, French politician Pierre Mauroy (born July 5, 1928) is a French Socialist politician. ... Founded December 22, 1967 President Pierre Mauroy (PS) (since 1989) Communes 85 Area 611. ...

Miscellaneous facts

Most and least populous communes

, The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... Combatants France Germany Commanders Philippe PÃ©tain Robert Nivelle Erich von Falkenhayn Strength About 30,000 on 21 February 1916 About 150,000 on 21 February 1916 Casualties 377,000â€“542,000 total (of which 162,308 killed or missing) 336,000â€“434,000 total (of which about 100,000... Bezonvaux is a commune of the Meuse dÃ©partement, in northeastern France. ... Combatants France Germany Commanders Philippe PÃ©tain Robert Nivelle Erich von Falkenhayn Strength About 30,000 on 21 February 1916 About 150,000 on 21 February 1916 Casualties 377,000â€“542,000 total (of which 162,308 killed or missing) 336,000â€“434,000 total (of which about 100,000... A prefect (from the Latin praefectus, perfect participle of praeficio, to make in front, i. ... Meuse is a dÃ©partement in northeast France, named after the Meuse River. ... The dÃ©partements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... Capital Metz Land areaÂ¹ 23,547 kmÂ² Regional President Jean-Pierre Masseret (PS) (since 2004) Population - Jan. ... Champagne is one of the traditional provinces of France, a region of France that is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the regions name. ...

Largest and smallest commune territories

To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions, we list here areas between 10,000 kmÂ² and 100,000 kmÂ². ... Metropolitan France (French: la France mÃ©tropolitaine, or just la MÃ©tropole) refers to the part of France in Europe, including Corsica, as opposed to the overseas departments and overseas territories, which, while integral parts of the French Republic, are regarded as Overseas France (la France doutre-mer, or... Map of western Mediterranean, showing location of Arles Arles (Arle in ProvenÃ§al) is a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-RhÃ´ne dÃ©partement, of which it is a sous-prÃ©fecture, in the former province of Provence. ... Marseilles redirects here. ... Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. ... Length 800 km Elevation of the source 1753 m Average discharge 1800 m³/ s Area watershed 100,200 km² Origin Rhône glacier Mouth Mediterranean Sea Basin countries Switzerland, France The River Rhône ( Latin Rhodanus, French Rhône, Occitan Rose, German Rotten) is one of the major rivers (ca. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude and geographical regions, we list here areas between 100 kmÂ² and 1000 kmÂ². See also areas of other orders of magnitude. ... Edouard Manet: Racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne (1864) Inside the Jardin dAcclimatation The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16Ã¨me arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. ... The Bois de Vincennes is a park in the English landscape manner to the east of Paris. ... City motto: Lilia sola regunt lunam undas castra leonem. ... To help compare orders of magnitude of different areas, we list here areas between 1 hectare (10,000 mÂ²) and 10 hectares (0. ...

Most elevated commune

The most elevated commune of the French Republic (and of Europe) is Saint-Véran (267 inhabitants), in the French Alps: the altitude of the village is between 1,990 meters (6,529 feet) and 2,040 meters (6,693 feet) above sea level. Saint-VÃ©ran is a village and commune of the Hautes-Alpes dÃ©partement, in France. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...

Communes furthest away from the capital city of France

LÃŽle-des-Pins is a commune in the South Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. ... Capital Ajaccio Land areaÂ¹ 8,680 kmÂ² Regional President Â² Ange Santini (UMP) (since 2004) Population - Jan. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ...

Shortest and longest commune names

Y (pronounced like the name of letter E in English) is a French commune of the Somme département, in the Picardie région (postal code 80190). ... Saint-Germain-de-Tallevende-la-Lande-Vaumont is a commune of the Calvados département, in the Basse-Normandie région, in France. ...

Names of communes other than in French

Names of French communes are normally in French. In areas where other languages than French were spoken, the names have been turned into French, such as Toulouse (formerly Tolosa in Occitan), Strasbourg (formerly Straßburg in German), or Perpignan (formerly Perpinyà in Catalan). However, many smaller communes have retained their native name. Here are examples of retained names in the languages once spoken, or still spoken, on the territory of the French Republic: The Capitole, the 18th century city hall of Toulouse and best known landmark in the city; in the foreground is the Place du Capitole, a hub of urban life at the very center of the city Toulouse (pronounced in standard French (helpÂ· info), in local Toulouse accent (helpÂ· info)) (Occitan... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ... City motto: â€“ City proper (commune) RÃ©gion Alsace DÃ©partement Bas-Rhin (67) Mayor Fabienne Keller (UMP) (since 2001) Land area 78. ... Location within France Location within the PyrÃ©nÃ©es-Orientales dÃ©partement Majorca Kings Palace in Perpignan Perpignan (French: Perpignan; Catalan PerpinyÃ ) is a commune and the prÃ©fecture (administrative capital city) of the PyrÃ©nÃ©es-Orientales dÃ©partement in southern France. ... Catalan (CatalÃ IPA: ) also called Valencian (ValenciÃ IPA: ) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and co-official in several regions of Spain. ...

Breton (Breton: Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh) and Loire-Atlantique (historically part of Brittany) in France. ... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ... Basque (in Basque: Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France. ... Uztaritze is a small village in the province of Labourd, in the South part of France. ... Catalan (CatalÃ IPA: ) also called Valencian (ValenciÃ IPA: ) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and co-official in several regions of Spain. ... Corsican (Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Corsica (France), alongside French, which is the official language. ... Comorian (Shikomor) is the most widely used language on the Comoros (independent islands in the Indian Ocean, off Mozambique and Madagascar). ... The Polynesian languages are a group of related languages spoken in the region known as Polynesia. ... The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Kouaoua is a municipality in the North Province of New Caledonia. ... Native American languages are the indigenous languages of the Americas, spoken by Native Americans from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Greenland. ... Kourou Kourou is a town and commune in French Guiana, some 40 km northwest of the capital Cayenne at the mouth of the Kourou river on the Atlantic coast. ...

Classification

INSEE codes: INSEE gives numerical indexing codes to various entities in France, notably the communes (they do not coincide with postcodes). The 'complete' code has 8 digits and 3 spaces within, but there is a popular 'simplified' code with 5 digits and no space within: INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). ... UK and Australian postal codes are known as postcodes. ...

References

La Documentation franÃ§aise is a French governmental service publishing books, reports and other official documentation in the administrative, political, economic and social fields. ...

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