Administrative units in early medieval France. Administrative divisions of France

The territorial division of France includes territorial collectives, i.e. self-governing units, and other territorial entities in which there is no local self-government. The former include communes, departments and regions, the latter - cantons and districts.

Communes, of which there are about 36 thousand in the country, form the basis of the territorial organization of France. Not only rural settlements, but also cities have the status of communities. The main body of self-government in the commune is the council, elected by the population of the commune for a period of 6 years. He, in turn, elects the mayor and his deputies by secret ballot - also for 6 years. The mayor is the executive body local government and at the same time a representative of state power in the commune. The competence of the communes includes the organization of water supply, trade, maintenance of local libraries and museums, roads, collection of local taxes, etc.

Cantons - These are historical territorial units that do not have any of their own bodies: either management or self-government. They are used as constituencies for elections to departmental councils and judicial districts.

Departments - these are the basic units of local division. There are 96 departments in France. Each department has a council elected for 6 years (general council). It is updated 1/2 every 3 years. The executive body is the chairman of the council, elected by the council. But the department has not only self-government bodies, but also a government body - a prefect appointed by the Government, who exercises administrative supervision over the activities of the department's self-government bodies and controls the local services of ministries.

District unites several departments and does not have its own self-government bodies. The district is managed by a sub-prefect appointed by the Government, who is responsible for social issues, sanitation, improvement, etc.

Region, uniting from 3 to 5 departments, just like a department, it has bodies of self-government and public administration. The bodies of self-government are the regional council, elected by direct elections for six years, its chairman and bureau, elected by the council, as well as committees formed by the council. Public administration in the region is carried out by a regional prefect, whose functions are performed by the prefect of the largest department in the region. There are 22 regions in France.

A number of former French colonies retained state and legal ties with the metropolis, having received the status overseas territories and departments. These are sparsely populated islands, located very far from the metropolis. Overseas territories have the greatest degree of legal independence. There are four of them: New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna Islands and Arctic Lands. They have their own legislative and executive authorities, which have fairly broad competence. However, on some issues, France adopts laws for these territories. These are issues of defense, public order, judicial and monetary systems. In addition, the French Government appoints a state representative in each territory who represents its interests and monitors compliance with its legislation. In July 1998, the Constitution included a provision on the need to hold a referendum in New Caledonia on the approval of the agreement signed between the French Government and the two leading political forces of the territory (the National Socialist Front for the Liberation of the Kanaks and the Rally for Caledonia within the Republic). The agreement provides for the continuation of the existing relationship between France and New Caledonia for the next 15-20 years and the holding at the end of this period of a referendum in this territory on the issue of acquiring independence. The referendum was held on November 8, 1988. More than 70% of voting participants supported the agreement.

Four overseas department France (Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique and Reunion) have both the status of regions and departments with the corresponding powers and bodies, i.e. their status is similar to that of the French regions and departments.

In addition to the listed territorial units within the territory of France, there is another one that has absolutely special status. This Corsica- an island in the Mediterranean Sea with political autonomy. It has its own parliament with limited competence, which elects a chairman who alone exercises executive power.

31. Elections in foreign countries: concept, social purpose, types.

Elections are a procedure for the formation of a public authority or the empowerment of an official, carried out by voting, provided that several candidates apply for each replaced mandate. In other words, it is the alternative nature of elections that distinguishes them from other methods of public power, which include appointment, inheritance, and filling certain posts by position and by lot. Elections are historically the most ancient way of vesting power in individuals. Their preservation and widespread use in democratic states is explained by the fact that they perform a number of important social functions, consisting of the following.

1. Elections ensure the legitimacy of power, i.e. its recognition by the population, its willingness to voluntarily carry out its orders.

2. Through elections, the relationship between various forces and interests in society is revealed.

3. Choice is a means of selecting political leaders.

4. Elections are a mechanism for ensuring popular sovereignty and a democratic political regime.

World practice knows a lot species elections. They can be classified on a number of grounds. By territory elections are divided into national (through which the highest authorities of the country are elected), regional (for example, elections of bodies of federal subjects) and local (elections of local governments).

By time elections are regular (held at the end of the term of office of the relevant body or official) and extraordinary (held after the early termination of their powers).

For the maximum possible number of tours voting elections are divided into single-round, two-round and multi-round. As a rule, the second and subsequent rounds of voting (re-voting) are held if the first voting did not produce results, i.e. the required number of elected officials was not elected. Typically, a repeat vote is required if a candidate needs to win more than half of the votes to be elected, but no one received such a majority as a result of the first round of voting. In this case, two or more candidates participate in the second round, for whom more voters voted than for other candidates

By the number of mandates, replaced in electoral districts, elections are uninominal (one person is elected from each district) and polynomial (several persons are elected from the district).

Depending on the role of the population distinguish between direct and indirect elections. Direct mean direct voting of voters on candidates for elective positions, and in case of indirect voting, the question of their election is finally decided not by the electoral body itself, but by the persons elected by it (electors, deputies). Sometimes in the literature, indirect elections are divided into indirect and multi-degree. Indirect elections mean that the population elects a board whose sole purpose is to elect a particular official or public authority. It is by indirect elections that, for example, the President of the United States is elected: the population of each state votes only for electors from that state, the electors then elect the President and Vice President. When using multi-level elections, certain public authorities, directly elected by the population, elect other bodies or officials. For example, in China, lower people's congresses elect higher ones.

Elections are a complex category that includes three main elements. These are the electoral law, the electoral process and the electoral system.

The administrative division of France is very complex. The country is divided into administrative regions, departments, districts, cantons, and communes. In addition to land possessions, France also has coastal territories that are under its authority.

general characteristics

The land part of the French Republic is divided into 22 administrative regions and 96 departments. France has only 10 overseas possessions: 5 overseas territories (Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion, Guiana, Guadeloupe) and 5 departments (Wallis and Futuna Islands, Saint Barthelemy, French Polynesia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon). In addition to land and coastal areas, the administrative division of the French Republic includes territories with a special status (French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Clipperton, New Caledonia).

So, in the state in question there are 27 administrative units, 22 of which are located on the European mainland, and 5 are overseas territories.

In turn, 27 regions consist of 101 departments, 336 districts, 2074 cantons. The main administrative unit of France is the communes, the number of which is 36,658 throughout the state. Over the past couple of years, the French Republic has been undergoing reforms of the structure of the state, as a result of which the overseas territories and mainland possessions of the state are undergoing some changes. The government plans to reduce the number of regions from 22 to 13.

The number of departments remains the same. There are currently 2,074 cantons, and this number has not always been the case. This administrative unit has already undergone changes and it was decided to reduce it by almost 2 times (there were 4055 cantons, but 2074 remain). What about communes and districts, they are also planning to reduce them. 6 districts and 123 communes will be removed. Several communes are going to be united into government agencies to resolve minor government issues.

Administrative divisions of France

Changes

Changes in the French Republic became officially recognized on January 1, 2016. The administrative division of the republic now consists of 18 regions, in which there are 101 departments. Today's fluctuations in politics had almost no impact on the overseas possessions of the Republic and its remaining possessions left over from the past colonial regime.

Population and numbers of France

But on the French mainland, many people united into one region, for example: two parts of Normandy united, forming one large region. North - Pas-de-Calais was united with Picardy, Rhône-Alpe with Auvergne, and Burgundy became one with Franche-Comté, while Brittany remained in its original place. Strasbourg became the capital of the new largest region. Another city of the republic, Bordeaux, which became the political center of the region, was just as lucky.

The reform carried out had the goal of transferring power and authority to local government bodies. It was called decentralization and was carried out to improve the distribution of power between the highest administrative bodies and local governments. After the reform, local authorities received the right to issue regulations, which, after publication, were approved by higher authorities.

Features of the administrative units of the republic

Also a feature of the administrative division of the French Republic is the huge number of communes (36,000), while in others European countries there are only 12,000, 8,000 or even fewer. Thus, we notice that this means that the structure of France is much more complex than in other European countries. The creation of departments contributed to the creation of communes.

The government of departments is as follows: a small territory of the state is under the control and authority of one or another department. And now more about the departments. Their total area is more than 5,000 square kilometers. Each department has a certain “capital”, that is, a main city, behind which there are directly smaller units-administrative institutions.

Documents for a visa to France

The center of departments is selected in the usual way, usually this is the most Big city on its territory. Their government covers transportation, economics, culture, education, social security, and health insurance. The main activity of the departments of the French Republic is medical and social security.

The main assembly is the General Council, which is elected at meetings of the General Councilors and is re-elected every 6 years. Only the members do not change as a whole, but only by half. More recently, a territorial unit of France - a region - has appeared. The state has 26 regions, 22 of which are located on the European mainland. Under the government of the region there is a representative of the highest authority of the republic. The main activities of the regions are to promote the sanitary, medical, cultural, economic and social development of its territory, as well as the development of the region. The border of the region lies on the border of the departments that comprise it.

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2. Administrative-territorial structure of France

The French Republic is a unitary state. Its constituent parts are neither states nor state entities. Until recently, the administrative-territorial structure of France and the organization of local government reproduced the models that were created during the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon I. Radical reforms were carried out in the 80s through the adoption of laws on decentralization.

In Art. 72 of the French Constitution states that the territorial collectives of the Republic are communes, departments, overseas territories, which are freely governed by elected councils subject to the conditions provided by law. The competence of local elected bodies is regulated in detail by law, and the state, through its officials, ensures that they do not exceed their powers.

The lowest level of administrative-territorial division in France is the commune, of which there are about 37 thousand. Residents of the commune elect a municipal council for a period of 6 years, which is both a lower-level body of state power and a body of local self-government. The Municipal Council elects a chairman from among its members by a majority vote. executive power- mayor.

The union of several communes is a canton, which was introduced for the convenience of managing public affairs. There are a number of officials and responsible persons in the canton - a judge, a notary, the head of the gendarmerie, etc.

The communes are united into a district. In the French district there are from 100 to 150 communes, there are about 300 in total. The head of the district is a sub-prefect appointed by the government.

The next level of management is the department, which includes about 400 communes, or 35 cantons. Its activities are managed by the General Council, to which each canton appoints one of its representatives - the General Councilor. The General Council is headed by a prefect, appointed by the president. At the same time, the prefect not only decides general issues, but also manages the work of the department.

The largest administrative-territorial unit of France is the region. The region has a regional council, and it is headed by a prefect. Their creation as a union of individual departments began back in 1961. However, an attempt to legally formulate the division of the entire country into regions by submitting a corresponding bill to a referendum in 1969 did not receive support from the majority of the population. Despite the disapproval of the project for creating regions in a referendum, a few years later, in 1972, a law was adopted that gave the status legal entity. And only in 1982, with the adoption of the Law on Decentralization, the formation of the region as a territorial collective was legally formalized, and the entire territory of the country was divided into regions.

Of the above entities, two - the canton and the district - essentially do not have general administration bodies and, rather, act as the territorial limits of the activities of some special administrative bodies. In addition to them, in France there are a number of other special districts - these are military, judicial, school and other districts, the boundaries of which do not always coincide with the boundaries of administrative-territorial units. In modern France, only communes, departments and regions have bodies of self-government and serve as the territorial basis for the activities of self-governing territorial collectives. It is within these three units that the system of self-government in France functions today.

Thus, at this point of our work, we revealed the features of the functioning of the administrative-territorial structure of France and indicated the governing bodies of each level of the administrative-territorial division.

3.Administrative-territorial structure of Italy

In accordance with the constitution of 1947, Italy is a single unitary state. At the same time, the basic norms did not prevent the introduction of a special model of administrative-territorial structure, known as the “Regional State” or “state of regional autonomies.” Moreover, the constitution enshrined two most important principles of the “regional state”: the principle of political decentralization and the principle of territorial collectives within a single state. In practice, this meant granting independence and certain administrative powers to all territorial collectives: regions, provinces, communes.

The largest units in Italy are regions (they can be created if there are at least 1 million inhabitants). As a result of the administrative-territorial reform, 20 regions were formed, endowed with broad autonomy. The 1947 Constitution recognized the regions as autonomous entities with legislative, administrative and financial independence.

Five regions of special autonomy have a special status - Trentino-Alto Adige, Vale d'Aosta, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sicily and Sardinia - they exercise power and control on the basis of their own statutes - statutes regulating all issues of the organization and functioning of the region. The remaining 15 areas of ordinary autonomy operate on the basis of the provisions of the Constitution and parliamentary laws. The statutes of such regions have the right to fix only issues relating to the internal organization of the region, the exercise of the right of initiative and referendum in relation to laws and administrative acts of the region, and the procedure for publishing regional laws.

By constitutional means, the regions were transferred powers that were previously within the competence of the state. First of all, these are legislative powers. A list of issues on which the region has the right to adopt its own legislative norms has been determined. Regional laws cannot contradict the principles of national order, international obligations, interests of the state and other areas.

Provinces and communes, according to Italian law, are simultaneously territorial units of both the state and the regional division. Their functions and powers are regulated nationwide on the basis of a single law of May 17, 1990.

The lower limit for the population of the province is set at 200 thousand inhabitants. It is possible to create administrative districts in the provinces in order to more effectively carry out management functions. In accordance with regional development programs, the province adopts its own multi-year programs and plans for the development of the territory. Based on the relevant program, the province coordinates the activities of the communes and acts independently in the fields of economics, production, commerce, tourism, and the social sphere.

Communes are the lowest and most numerous administrative-territorial units. When communes are formed, their population should not be less than 10 thousand inhabitants. Communes have administrative powers in the area social security, improvement and use of the territory, its economic development, creation of local industrial land use zones.

Nine large cities should be named as independent administrative-territorial units with a special status, according to the Italian law on the organization of autonomies of 1990: Turin, Milan, Naples, Venice, Genoa, Rome, Bologna, Florence, Bari.

All territorial units of Italy have representatives of the central government. In the region, these functions are assigned to the government commissioner. In the provinces they are entrusted to the prefect, who is part of the Ministry of the Interior. In the communes, such a government official is the syndic, who informs the prefect about the state of public order and security, issues acts on the implementation of urgent measures in the field of health and hygiene, construction and local police. The syndic maintains a civil register and population records, fulfilling the requirements of the legislation on statistics, voter registration, and registration of military personnel.