Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF DECENTRALIZATION FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PRESENT
- PART II THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION
- Introduction: When informal rules become formal roles
- 6 When informal rules counter formal roles: Local government before the Socialist reforms of the Fifth Republic
- 7 Rhetoric versus reality in local government: Local politics and administration before the Socialist Fifth Republic
- 8 When informal rules become formal roles: The new pluralism in the institutions and processes of local government
- 9 Unblocking society by decree: The transformation of the politico-administrative system
- 10 A new rhetoric and a new reality in local government: Local politics and administration in the Socialist Fifth Republic and beyond
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - When informal rules become formal roles: The new pluralism in the institutions and processes of local government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF DECENTRALIZATION FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PRESENT
- PART II THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION
- Introduction: When informal rules become formal roles
- 6 When informal rules counter formal roles: Local government before the Socialist reforms of the Fifth Republic
- 7 Rhetoric versus reality in local government: Local politics and administration before the Socialist Fifth Republic
- 8 When informal rules become formal roles: The new pluralism in the institutions and processes of local government
- 9 Unblocking society by decree: The transformation of the politico-administrative system
- 10 A new rhetoric and a new reality in local government: Local politics and administration in the Socialist Fifth Republic and beyond
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Socialists' decentralization reforms of 1982 to 1986 significantly altered the traditional institutional framework of centralization. By formalizing the informal, decentralized rules followed by local administrators and elected officials in the periphery, the new laws have produced great changes in the processes and institutions of local government. They have introduced a new kind of transparency into local officials' practices and opened up local politics and administration to new patterns of development, to new forms of administrative activity, and to increased political activity.
Many scholars, however, disappointed that the reforms did not go as far as the Socialists had anticipated, have tended to be quite conservative in their assessments of the impact of decentralization on local institutions and processes. For obvious reasons, only those focused on administrative law saw radical change in the Socialist reform – and this followed years of describing a pattern of continuing centralization attenuated at best by minor modifications in the law. Administrative law scholars produced countless new texts outlining the new laws and they carefully revised all the old primers. In addition, whereas many experts published tomes examining the impact of the new laws on local administration in general, others edited volumes that detailed the effects of decentralization on all aspects of local government, and still others wrote books and articles concentrating on the impact of decentralization on one or another level of local government.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Democratizing FranceThe Political and Administrative History of Decentralization, pp. 264 - 309Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991