Municipal arrondissement in France
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| Regional level |
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| Departmental level |
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| Arrondissement level |
| Arrondissements |
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| Communal level |
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| Municipal arrondissements |
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| Territoire d'outre-mer |
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The municipal arrondissement (French: arrondissement municipal), more simply referred to as arrondissement, is a level of administrative division in France lower than the commune. Thus, it could be regarded as the lowest level of administrative division in France. However, municipal arrondissements only exist within three communes: Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles; therefore, arrondissements must be regarded as a special case of administrative division, the commune being the basic lowest level of administrative division.
Municipal arrondissements should not be confused with the arrondissements, which are a level of administrative division below the département.
| Contents |
General characteristics
There are 45 municipal arrondissements in France: 20 in Paris (see: Arrondissements of Paris), 9 in Lyon, and 16 in Marseilles. However, a law in 1987 assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseilles to 8 secteurs ("areas"), 2 arrondissements by secteur. Thus, in effect, Marseilles can be more properly described as being divided into 8 secteurs, the 16 arrondissements having been made hollow units.
- Area:
- The largest arrondissement is the 9th arrondissement of Marseilles: 63.21 km² (24.4 sq. miles, or 15,620 acres), which is 26% of the size of the city of Marseilles, and 60% of the size of the city of Paris (including the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes).
- The smallest arrondissement is the 2nd arrondissement of Paris: 0.992 km² (0.383 sq. miles, or 245 acres).
- Population:
- The most populous arrondissement is the 15th arrondissement of Paris, with 225,362 inhabitants at the 1999 census. If the 15th arrondissement of Paris was a commune, it would be the ninth most populated commune of France, above cities (communes) like Bordeaux, Lille, or Grenoble.
- The least populous arrondissement is the 16th arrondissement of Marseilles, with only 16,574 inhabitants. However, the 16th arrondissement is part of the 8th secteur of Marseilles (87,714 inhabitants), and is not really administered by itself as explained above. Thus, the least populated arrondissement in France is in fact the 1st arrondissement of Paris, with 16,888 inhabitants at the 1999 census.
Par_Arr.jpg
- Density:
- The arrondissement with the highest population density is the 11th arrondissement of Paris, with 40,672 inh. per km² (105,339 inh. per sq. miles) in 1999.
- The arrondissement with the lowest population density is the 9th arrondissement of Marseilles, with 1,151 inh. per km² (2,981 inh. per sq. miles) in 1999.
Municipal arrondissements do not have names, they only have numbers (except in Paris where they also have names, but nobody use those names, not even the Paris administration). In Paris, people are well used to the arrondissements, and when asked where they live they will answer with the number of their arrondissement. In Lyon and Marseilles, people are less accustomed to the arrondissements, and they rather use the names of neighborhoods instead of the arrondissements. This is especially true in Marseilles where people almost never refer to arrondissements, but only to the names of neighborhoods, and also sometimes to the numbers of the secteurs.
Mars_Arr.jpg
Municipal arrondissements are used in the 5-digit postal codes (ZIP Codes) of France. The first two digits are the number of the département in which the address is located (75 for Paris; 69 for Rhône in which Lyon is located; 13 for Bouches-du-Rhône in which Marseilles is located), then the last three digits are the number of the arrondissement. So the postal code of a person living in the 5th arrondissement of Paris will be "75005 Paris", and for a person living in the 14th arrondissement of Marseilles it will be "13014 Marseille". The only exception is the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which is divided between two postal codes: "75016 Paris" in the south of the arrondissement, and "75116 Paris" in the north of the arrondissement.
Some other large cities of France are also divided between several postal codes, although there the postal codes do not correspond to arrondissements.
History
The first municipal arrondissements were created on August 22, 1795 when the city (commune) of Paris was split into twelve arrondissements. At the time, the National Convention was wary of the municipalities in big cities because of their revolutionary moods (Paris) or because of their counter-revolutionary leanings (Lyon and many other cities in the provinces), and so the Convention decided to split the large cities (communes) of France into smaller communes. Paris, unlike the other large cities, was not split into smaller communes, but into arrondissements, a newly created category, and the central municipality was abolished.
Par_Arr1.jpg
In 1805 Napoleon reunited all the large cities of France, but Paris was left divided. Eventually, in 1834, the city (commune) of Paris was reunited, with a municipal council for the whole city, but without a mayor, the municipality being ruled by the préfet of the Seine département and by the préfet de police. The twelve arrondissements were preserved, being needed for the local administration of people in such a large and populous city as Paris.
On December 31, 1859 the central government enlarged the city of Paris, annexing the suburban communes surrounding Paris, and the arrondissements were reorganized due to the enlargement. Twenty arrondissements with new boundaries were set up, and they are still the arrondissements found today in Paris.
In the case of Lyon, in 1852, after more than fifty years of hesitations, the central government finally allowed Lyon to annex its immediate suburbs, which had become extremely populous with the Industrial Revolution. The commune of Lyon annexed the communes of Croix-Rousse, La Guillotière, and Vaise. Wary of the new size of the city and the power held by the municipality, the central government decided to divide Lyon into five arrondissements, and the office of mayor of Lyon was abolished. The préfet of the Rhône département was left to rule the municipality.
Lyon_Arr.jpg
In 1881, the office of mayor of Lyon was re-established, and the commune of Lyon reverted to the standard status of French communes. However, the arrondissements were maintained, again being needed in such a populous city as Lyon. New arrondissements were created in Lyon in 1867, 1912, and 1957 by splitting the 3rd and 7th arrondissements. In 1963 Lyon annexed the commune of Saint-Rambert-l'Île-Barbe, and in 1964 the 9th arrondissement of Lyon was created as a result of the annexation, thus reaching a total of nine arrondissements, which are still the arrondissements found in Lyon today.
In 1975 the office of mayor of Paris was re-established, after 180 years of abolition, but the arrondissements were left untouched.
The most important moment in the history of the municipal arrondissements was in 1982. The Socialists won the French general elections in 1981, and in 1982 they passed several key laws redefining the powers of the régions, départements, and communes, with the clear objective of ushering into a less centralized France. On December 31, 1982 was passed the so-called "PML Law" (Loi PML), where PML stands for Paris Marseilles Lyon. These three communes were given a special status, derogatory to the general status of communes, and the three communes were officially divided into arrondissements. Where arrondissements already existed such as in Paris or Lyon, the law preserved the boundaries of these already existing arrondissements. In Marseilles, where apparently there were no arrondissements before 1982, 16 arrondissements were set up.
The municipal arrondissements were given an official status by the law, with each their town hall (mairie d'arrondissement), and each their mayor (maire d'arrondissement). For the first time in history, arrondissement councils (conseils d'arrondissement) were created in the arrondissements, directly elected by the inhabitants of the arrondissements. The three city halls (mairies) of Paris, Marseilles, and Lyon were preserved above the mairies d'arrondissement, with a mayor (maire) for each city above the maires d'arrondissement.
In these three cities the arrondissements were made the administrative unit dealing with citizens. For birth or marriage recordings, for all necessary queries and official business, citizens go to the mairie d'arrondissement, while the city hall (mairie centrale) does not have contacts with the citizens and is only in charge of larger matters such as economic development or local taxation. It was felt that the arrondissements would be closer to citizens, who would have an easier access to the local arrondissement town hall rather than to a centralized city hall.
The law was largely welcomed, but some wondered why it was only applied to Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles. These three cities are the largest in France (with 2,125,246 inhabitants in Paris, 798,430 inhabitants in Marseilles, and 445,452 inhabitants in Lyon) and the law was meant to have the local administration closer to citizens in so populated cities. However, many thought the law could have been applied to other cities, in particular to the fourth largest city of France, Toulouse (390,350 inhabitants), and the fifth largest city, Nice (342,738 inhabitants); both cities where the central city halls also have to deal with an enormous amount of citizens. Nonetheless, to this day only Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles are divided into arrondissements.
In 1987, a new law assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseilles to 8 secteurs, 2 arrondissements by secteur, as explained above; and in Marseilles there are now only 8 mairies d'arrondissement, each one administering the 2 arrondissements of each secteur.
Status
The PML Law of 1982 governs the status of the municipal arrondissements.
Unlike French communes, municipal arrondissements have no legal "personality", they are not considered legal entities and have no legal capacity; also, they have no budget of their own.
The three communes of Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles are ruled by a municipal council and a mayor. In Paris the municipal council is called Paris council (conseil de Paris). Each arrondissement (or secteur in Marseilles) has an arrondissement council (conseil d'arrondissement) and an arrondissement mayor. The arrondissement council is made up for one-third of members of the municipal council elected at the commune level above the arrondissements, and for two-thirds of councilors elected inside the arrondissement. The arrondissement mayor is elected by the arrondissement council. He must be a member of the municipal council of the commune.
The law of February 27, 2002 on local or "proximity" democracy increased the powers of the arrondissement councils and of the arrondissement mayors.
Rights and duties of the arrondissement council and mayor:
- The arrondissement council manages local community facilities (child care centers and public nurseries, sport centers and stadiums, local parks, etc.), but it must obtain authorization from the municipal council before building new facilities.
- The arrondissement council is asked for advice by the municipal council in any project whose completion will take place on the territory of the arrondissement. In particular, the arrondissement council gives an opinion on matters regarding local non-profit associations and on modifications of local zoning (Plan Local d'Urbanisme).
- Arrondissements also have a say in social housing: dwellings part of social housing (council flats) which are located on the territory of the arrondissement are partly allocated by the arrondissement mayor (half of the social dwellings), while the other half is allocated by the mayor of the commune.
- The arrondissement mayor and his deputies are in charge of registering births, deaths, and marriages in the arrondissement.
- The arrondissement council can submit written questions to the mayor of the commune on any matter regarding the arrondissement. It can also ask the municipal council to debate over any matter regarding the arrondissement.
- The municipal council and the mayor of the commune can delegate certain powers to the arrondissement councils and mayors.
- The arrondissement council can create neighborhood committees (conseils de quartier). These neighborhood committees have people in a given neighborhood meet regularly and draft proposals concerning life in their neighborhood.
See also
- Arrondissements of Paris
- Arrondissement in France (departmental arrondissements)
- Arrondissement