Administrative Simplification : France Wins a Gold Medal for Conservatism
Among my « Persian » astonishments, there is the stir around the Attali commission’s proposals for administrative simplification – against part of which Nicolas Sarkozy unexplainably opposed contrary views.
In order to understand the need and the urgency of such reforms, let’s compare the administrative structures of Aisne, a departement where one of my grandfathers was born and those of a country which I know well, this time through marriage, the Netherlands: Aisne is divided into 5 districts (arrondissements), 42 sub-districts (cantons) and 816 communes (and 26 communities of communes), whereas there is only for the whole of the Netherlands 12 provinces and 438 communes… With twice as much administration, Aisne is yet 6 times smaller than the Netherlands and 30 times less populated. French administration (in Aisne) is thus 60 times more divided. At national level, the average population in a Dutch commune is 37 830 inhabitants against 1 542 in France.
Moreover, Dutch citizens are faced with four administrative levels: communal, provincial, national and European. They can understand rather quickly their respective prerogatives. French citizens must master eight administrative levels: communes, communities of communes, cantons, arrondissements, départements, regions, State and Europe. How straightforward must civics lessons seem to Dutch schoolchildren! How much better prepared are they to take part in public life!
In terms of territory, the median value of communal superficies in Belgium is 40 square km (15 square miles) ; in France it is 10,7 square km (4 square miles) – and the median value of communal populations is 11 265 inhabitants in Belgium against 380 inhabitants in France.
Why ? Simple : to start with, these countries – as well as Italy, Canada or the UK – have already reformed their administrative organisation in depth, whereas France, however secular, religiously maintains the former parishes of Ancien Régime and the departments of the French Revolution. As a result, a quarter of the French lives in one of the nearly 32 000 communes with less than 2000 inhabitants; another quarter lives in the 3764 communes with 2 000 to 10 000 inhabitants; the third quarter in the 762 communes with 10 000 to 50 000 inhabitants and the last quarter in the 112 communes with more than 50 000 inhabitants (among which 14,5% in the 102 towns with 50 to 200 000 inhabitants and 9% in cities with more than 200 000 inhabitants.) No less than 10 000 communes - more than a quarter of the total number - count less than 200 inhabitants ; how could they possibly have a competent executive and the resources necessary in order to ensure the due services for their population ? This situation is not only uselessly expensive but also deeply unjust.
Moreover adapting administrative structures to the needs is a permanent concern of our neighbours. In the Netherlands, as soon as a commune’s population goes down below a certain threshold, one tries – and succeeds – to merge communes together. In France over the last three years, there were more communes created by splitting existing ones than there were mergers. No wonder that we still have 36783 communes in France, among which 36571 in metropolitan France, as much as the 14 other European countries that once were the EC (with 15 states).
That our communes are too small is well known. This is exactly why they have had to pool their resources and forms communities in order to foot the bill of necessary investments. As a result we had by January 1st, 2006, 2 558 structures federating 32 826 communes (90% of the total); these intercommunal structures were of 5 different sorts ; by decreasing integration degree:
- 14 urban communities
- 169 town communities
- 2400 communities of communes
- 5 town syndicates, an older category in the process of being replaced by town communities,
- and since 1995 « countries », areas characterised by a geographic, economic, social or cultural unity, whose elected officials and economics leaders felt the need to consult regularly on local projects.
What extraoridinary complexity! Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, they just merge together smaller communes while making sure of a fair repartition of administrative jobs in order to wrong no one and to avoid building new premises.
And departments? They were created in 1790 by the Constitutional Assembly, their limited size was meant to allow any citizen to reach the seat of administrative authority in less that a day of horseback travelling. It was a democratic, revolutionary idea. Since then a few things have been invented, cars among others, and the maximum distance which can be covered in one day has gone up from around 30 km to somewhere around 500 (excluding highways). We, the country of the Rafale, the TGV and the smart cards, pride ourselves of our administration which is clearly from the time of stagecoaches and diligences!
Department has no logic whatsoever in the time of Internet, as its prerogatives are largely claimed by the regions.
What can be done ? We coud apply Attali commission’s recommendations. Here they are (quoting from a French government site):
- let the departmental level disappear within the next ten years, which would allow for a clarification of competences and a reduction of the cost of territorial administration ;- transform intercommunal structures en « agglomerated towns », entities which would recognised by the Constitution, and transfer to them the responsibility to distribute the money which is at present directly made over to the communes but he State (theses reinforced intercommunal structures would take over some of the departments competences) ;- reinforce regions in their present competences (economic development, professional training) to the detriment of departments (in the framework of the general review of public policies, the majority of the decentralised services could be concentrated at regional level, and the corresponding services at departmental level could be as much as possible abolished) ;- simplify territorial organisation by attributing clearly competences to each level with the clearly defined corresponding resources (and clarify each level’s prerogatives in order to avoid extra costs and difficulties for some social benefits and public services) ;- regroup in the regional capitals relocated State services.
In the event that one should seek to avoid applying these good commonsense proposals, then other ideas should be put forward, for instance, instead of abolishing our dear (!) departments, we could abolish all modern means of transportation. This being said, that something of the old departments would survive for identity reasons is feasible – although as from Janueary 1st, 2009, the car regristration plates will not need to mention the departments any longer. Departments could for instance become a sort of electoral constituency in order to ensure a good representativity of the regional assemblies. With 22 metropolitan regions, to be compared to the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, France would start to look like a modern State again. And that would spell out billions worth of savings of of public money.
So my « Persian » astonishment is, deep down, what are we waiting for ?
Among my « Persian » astonishments, there is the stir around the Attali commission’s proposals for administrative simplification – against part of which Nicolas Sarkozy unexplainably opposed contrary views.
In order to understand the need and the urgency of such reforms, let’s compare the administrative structures of Aisne, a departement where one of my grandfathers was born and those of a country which I know well, this time through marriage, the Netherlands: Aisne is divided into 5 districts (arrondissements), 42 sub-districts (cantons) and 816 communes (and 26 communities of communes), whereas there is only for the whole of the Netherlands 12 provinces and 438 communes… With twice as much administration, Aisne is yet 6 times smaller than the Netherlands and 30 times less populated. French administration (in Aisne) is thus 60 times more divided. At national level, the average population in a Dutch commune is 37 830 inhabitants against 1 542 in France.
Moreover, Dutch citizens are faced with four administrative levels: communal, provincial, national and European. They can understand rather quickly their respective prerogatives. French citizens must master eight administrative levels: communes, communities of communes, cantons, arrondissements, départements, regions, State and Europe. How straightforward must civics lessons seem to Dutch schoolchildren! How much better prepared are they to take part in public life!
In terms of territory, the median value of communal superficies in Belgium is 40 square km (15 square miles) ; in France it is 10,7 square km (4 square miles) – and the median value of communal populations is 11 265 inhabitants in Belgium against 380 inhabitants in France.
Why ? Simple : to start with, these countries – as well as Italy, Canada or the UK – have already reformed their administrative organisation in depth, whereas France, however secular, religiously maintains the former parishes of Ancien Régime and the departments of the French Revolution. As a result, a quarter of the French lives in one of the nearly 32 000 communes with less than 2000 inhabitants; another quarter lives in the 3764 communes with 2 000 to 10 000 inhabitants; the third quarter in the 762 communes with 10 000 to 50 000 inhabitants and the last quarter in the 112 communes with more than 50 000 inhabitants (among which 14,5% in the 102 towns with 50 to 200 000 inhabitants and 9% in cities with more than 200 000 inhabitants.) No less than 10 000 communes - more than a quarter of the total number - count less than 200 inhabitants ; how could they possibly have a competent executive and the resources necessary in order to ensure the due services for their population ? This situation is not only uselessly expensive but also deeply unjust.
Moreover adapting administrative structures to the needs is a permanent concern of our neighbours. In the Netherlands, as soon as a commune’s population goes down below a certain threshold, one tries – and succeeds – to merge communes together. In France over the last three years, there were more communes created by splitting existing ones than there were mergers. No wonder that we still have 36783 communes in France, among which 36571 in metropolitan France, as much as the 14 other European countries that once were the EC (with 15 states).
That our communes are too small is well known. This is exactly why they have had to pool their resources and forms communities in order to foot the bill of necessary investments. As a result we had by January 1st, 2006, 2 558 structures federating 32 826 communes (90% of the total); these intercommunal structures were of 5 different sorts ; by decreasing integration degree:
- 14 urban communities
- 169 town communities
- 2400 communities of communes
- 5 town syndicates, an older category in the process of being replaced by town communities,
- and since 1995 « countries », areas characterised by a geographic, economic, social or cultural unity, whose elected officials and economics leaders felt the need to consult regularly on local projects.
What extraoridinary complexity! Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, they just merge together smaller communes while making sure of a fair repartition of administrative jobs in order to wrong no one and to avoid building new premises.
And departments? They were created in 1790 by the Constitutional Assembly, their limited size was meant to allow any citizen to reach the seat of administrative authority in less that a day of horseback travelling. It was a democratic, revolutionary idea. Since then a few things have been invented, cars among others, and the maximum distance which can be covered in one day has gone up from around 30 km to somewhere around 500 (excluding highways). We, the country of the Rafale, the TGV and the smart cards, pride ourselves of our administration which is clearly from the time of stagecoaches and diligences!
Department has no logic whatsoever in the time of Internet, as its prerogatives are largely claimed by the regions.
What can be done ? We coud apply Attali commission’s recommendations. Here they are (quoting from a French government site):
- let the departmental level disappear within the next ten years, which would allow for a clarification of competences and a reduction of the cost of territorial administration ;- transform intercommunal structures en « agglomerated towns », entities which would recognised by the Constitution, and transfer to them the responsibility to distribute the money which is at present directly made over to the communes but he State (theses reinforced intercommunal structures would take over some of the departments competences) ;- reinforce regions in their present competences (economic development, professional training) to the detriment of departments (in the framework of the general review of public policies, the majority of the decentralised services could be concentrated at regional level, and the corresponding services at departmental level could be as much as possible abolished) ;- simplify territorial organisation by attributing clearly competences to each level with the clearly defined corresponding resources (and clarify each level’s prerogatives in order to avoid extra costs and difficulties for some social benefits and public services) ;- regroup in the regional capitals relocated State services.
In the event that one should seek to avoid applying these good commonsense proposals, then other ideas should be put forward, for instance, instead of abolishing our dear (!) departments, we could abolish all modern means of transportation. This being said, that something of the old departments would survive for identity reasons is feasible – although as from Janueary 1st, 2009, the car regristration plates will not need to mention the departments any longer. Departments could for instance become a sort of electoral constituency in order to ensure a good representativity of the regional assemblies. With 22 metropolitan regions, to be compared to the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, France would start to look like a modern State again. And that would spell out billions worth of savings of of public money.
So my « Persian » astonishment is, deep down, what are we waiting for ?
posted by Antoine Jaulmes at 11:14 AM
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