Departement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The departements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas regionss. They are subdivided into 342 arrondissements. Departements are also found in Cote d'Ivoire.
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2 History 3 Map and list of departements 4 Former departements |
Administrative role
Each departement is administered by a Conseil General elected for six years, and its executive is, since 1982 headed by the president of that council (formerly it was headed by the ''prefet').
The French national government is represented in the departement by a prefet appointed by the national executive. The prefet is assisted by one or more sous-prefets based in district centres outside the departmental capital.
The capital city of a departement bears the title of prefecture. Departements are divided into one to five arrondissements. The capital city of an arrondissement is called the sous-prefecture. The civil servant in charge is the sous-prefet.
The departements sub-divide into communes, governed by municipal councils. France (as of 1999) had 36,779 communes.
Most of the departements have an area of around 4,000-8,000 km² and a population between 250,000 and a million. The largest in terms of area is Gironde (10,000 km²) and the smallest the city of Paris (105 km² excluding the suburbs, now organised in adjacent departements). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous Lozere (74,000).
See also: List of French departements by population The departements are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes and on car number-plates. Note that there is no number 20, but 2A and 2B instead. Note also that the two-digit code "98" is used by Monaco. Together with the ISO 3166-1 country code FR the numbers form the ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitain departments. The overseas departments get two letters for the ISO 3166-2 code.
History
Departements were created on January 15, 1790 by the Constituent Assembly to replace the country's former provinces with a more rational structure. They were also designed to deliberately break up France's historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences and build a more homogeneous nation. Most departements are named after the area's principal river(s) or other physical features.
The number of departements rose from an initial 83 to 130 by 1810 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the Empire (see Provinces of the Netherlands for the annexed Dutch departements), but they were reduced again to 86 with Napoleon I's defeat in 1814-1815. Three more were added with the acquisition of Nice and Savoy in 1860. The numbering was estabished on the alphabetical order of those 89 departements.
Three departements in Alsace-Lorraine which had been ceded to Germany in 1871 - (Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle) - re-joined France in 1919.
Reorganisations of the Paris region (1968) and the division of Corsica (1975) have added a further seven departements, raising the total to one hundred - including the four overseas departements d'outre-mer (DOM) of Guyane (French Guiana) in South America, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, and Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
Map and list of departements
| French regions and departements |
- The overseas departments are former colonies outside France that now enjoy a status similar to European or metropolitan France. They are part of France and of the EU. Each of them constitutes a region at the same time.
- Beyond these there are also two "overseas territories" (French: territoires d'outre-mer, or TOM) that are part of France but not of the EU. They are: Wallis and Futuna and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories.
- Furthermore there are two separate special status territories (French: collectivites territoriales), also part of France but not of the EU: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and Mayotte.
- At last there are two "overseas country" (French: pays d'outre-mer), also part of France but not of the EU: French Polynesia and New Caledonia. New Caledonia used to be a TOM.
(incomplete list)
Former departements
French departements
01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|2A|2B|21|22|23|24|25
26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49|50
51|52|53|54||55|56|57|58|59|60|61|62|63|64|65|66|67|68|69|70|71|72|73|74|75
76|77|78|79|80|81|82|83|84|85|86|87|88|89|90|91|92|93|94|95
Departements d'outre-mer: 971|972|973|974
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