Chapter 10 France: Centre, regions and outermost regions: The case for a new French and European governance

Abstract

Following the French Revolution, the Jacobins and then later Napoleon Bonaparte created a unitary and centralised state. In contrast, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were characterised by a slow process towards recognition of local autonomy. The 1958 Constitution founded the Fifth Republic under which France continued to be a unitary centralised state. This remained in existence until the Act of 2nd March 1982 on Rights and Liberties of the Regions, the Departments and the Municipalities (hereafter referred to as the 1982 Act). © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.