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In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies, a department (French: département, pronounced: [depaʁtǝmɑ̃]) is an administrative division roughly analogous to an English district or a Scottish region. The 100 French departments are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas regions. All regions have identical legal status as integral parts of France. They are subdivided into 342 arrondissements.
[edit] The department's place in the administrative systemMain article: Administrative divisions of France  The Republic of France is divided into regions, each of which is composed of departements. The departments are sub-divided into arrondissements, which in turn, are divided into cantons. Each canton consists of a small number of communes. In the overseas territories, some of the communes play a role at departmental level. [edit] General characteristics of the departmentsIn continental France (metropolitan France, excluding Corsica), the median land area of a department is 5,965 km² (2,303 square miles), which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of a ceremonial county of England, and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of a county in the United States. At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,012 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a U.S. county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England. The chef-lieu de département or préfecture, department capital or seat of government, is generally a city of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the département. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the département. The goal was for the chef-lieu to be accessible by horseback from any town in the département within 24 hours. The chef lieu is not necessarily the largest city in the département (for instance, Mâcon has a smaller population than Chalon-sur-Saône). [edit] Administrative roleEach département is administered by a conseil général (general council), an assembly elected for six years by universal suffrage, and its executive. Since 1982, the executive is the president of that council (formerly it was headed by the prefect). The French national government is represented in the département by a préfet (prefect) appointed by the national executive (the President within the Council of Ministers). The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects based in district centres outside the capital of the département. The center of administration of a département is called a préfecture (prefecture) or chef-lieu de département. Départements are divided into one to seven arrondissements. The capital city of an arrondissement is called the sous-préfecture (subprefecture) or chef-lieu d'arrondissement. The public official in charge is called the sous-préfet (sub-prefect). The départements are further divided into communes, governed by municipal councils. France (as of 1999) has 36,779 communes. Most of the départements have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000 km², and a population between 250,000 and one million. The largest in area is Gironde (10,000 km²), while the smallest is the city of Paris (105 km²). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous Lozère (74,000). See also: List of French departments by population The départements are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes, in INSEE codes (including "social security numbers") and on vehicle number-plates. In January 2009 a new number-plate scheme will succeed the latter application (for details see French vehicle registration plates). Initially, the numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the départements, but several changed their names, so the correspondence became less exact. There is no number 20, but 2A and 2B instead, for Corsica. Corsican postal codes or addresses in both departments do still start with 20, though. The two-digit code "98" is used by Monaco. Together with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code FR, the numbers form the ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitan départements. The overseas départements get two letters for the ISO 3166-2 code, e.g. 971 for Guadeloupe (see table below). [edit] HistoryBefore the French Revolution, the land of France was slowly accumulated by the annexation of a mosaic of more or less independent entities. See Territorial formation of France. By the close of the Ancien Regime it was organised into provinces. During the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Departments were created on 4 March 1790 by the Constituent Assembly to replace the provinces with what the Assembly deemed a more rational structure. They were designed to deliberately break up France's historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences and build a more homogeneous nation. The old nomenclature wase carefully avoided in naming the new departments Most were named after an area's principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine. The number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1810 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the Empire (see Provinces of the Netherlands for the annexed Dutch departments). Following Napoleon's defeats in 1814-1815, the number of departments was reduced to 86. The Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size; the total was 86, as three of the original departments had been split. In 1860, France acquired the County de Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice and a portion of the Var department. The 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin, and most of Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. A small part of Haut-Rhin however remained French, and became known as the Territoire de Belfort. When France regained the ceded departments after World War I, the Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into Haut-Rhin. In 1922, it became France's 90th department. The reorganisation of Greater Paris (1968) and the division of Corsica (1975) added six more departments, raising the total to ninety six. Finally there are the four overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion.
For details of the process of change in the extent of the territory which constitutes metropolitan France, see Territorial formation of France. [edit] Population
[edit] Party-political preferences
Key to the parties:
[edit] The FutureThe removal of one or more levels of local government has been discussed for some years; in particular, the option of removing the departmental level.[1] In January 2008, the Commission for freeing French development, known as the Attalai Commission, recommended that the departmental level of government should be made to disappear within ten years.[2] Nevertheless, the Committee for the reform of local authorities, known as the Balladur Committee has not retained this proposition and does not advocate the disappearance of the 100 departments, but simply “favours the voluntary grouping of departments”, which it suggests also for the regions, with the aim of bring the number of the latter down to fifteen.[3] This committee advocates on the contrary, the suppression of the cantons.[3]. The debate on the reform of local authorities finds an echo in that of retaining the departmental numbers in French vehicle registration numbers. Since April 2009, a departmental number is still included but it now is one chosen by the vehicle’s owner without necessary regard to his place of residence. Also, the number of the department is automatically accompanied on the number plate, by the logo of the region in which the department lies.[4] [edit] Maps and tables
[edit] Table 1. French regions and departmentsNotes for Table 1:
[edit] Former departments[edit] Table 2. On the current territory of France
[edit] Table 3. Name changesA few departments have changed names: typically, to lose the adjectives basses (low) and inférieure (lower).
[edit] Table 4. French Algeria.png) [edit] Before 1957
[edit] Table 5. 1957–1962
[edit] Table 6, In former colonies of France
[edit] Table 7. Napoleonic EmpireThere are a number of former departments in territories conquered by France during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire that are now not part of France: Notes for Table 7:
[edit] See also: The 130 departments of the Napoleonic Empire[edit] References
[edit] See also
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