Municipal Arrondissements of France - History

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.

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.

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 1977, the office of mayor of Paris was re-established after almost 183 years of abolition, but the arrondissements were left untouched.

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 "PLM Law" (Loi PLM), where PLM stands for Paris Lyon Marseille. 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 Marseille, 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, Marseille, 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 in charge of only 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 applied only to Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. These three cities are the largest in France (with 2,125,246 inhabitants in Paris, 798,430 inhabitants in Marseille, and 466,000 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 (435,000 inhabitants), and the fifth largest city, Nice (342,738 inhabitants); both cities where the central city halls also have to deal with a large number of citizens. Nonetheless, to this day only Paris, Lyon, and Marseille are divided into arrondissements.

In 1987, a new law assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseille to 8 secteurs, 2 arrondissements by secteur, as explained above; and in Marseille there are now only 8 mairies d'arrondissement, each one administering the 2 arrondissements of each secteur.