Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF DECENTRALIZATION FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PRESENT
- PART II THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION
- Introduction: When informal rules become formal roles
- 6 When informal rules counter formal roles: Local government before the Socialist reforms of the Fifth Republic
- 7 Rhetoric versus reality in local government: Local politics and administration before the Socialist Fifth Republic
- 8 When informal rules become formal roles: The new pluralism in the institutions and processes of local government
- 9 Unblocking society by decree: The transformation of the politico-administrative system
- 10 A new rhetoric and a new reality in local government: Local politics and administration in the Socialist Fifth Republic and beyond
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Rhetoric versus reality in local government: Local politics and administration before the Socialist Fifth Republic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF DECENTRALIZATION FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PRESENT
- PART II THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON LOCAL POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION
- Introduction: When informal rules become formal roles
- 6 When informal rules counter formal roles: Local government before the Socialist reforms of the Fifth Republic
- 7 Rhetoric versus reality in local government: Local politics and administration before the Socialist Fifth Republic
- 8 When informal rules become formal roles: The new pluralism in the institutions and processes of local government
- 9 Unblocking society by decree: The transformation of the politico-administrative system
- 10 A new rhetoric and a new reality in local government: Local politics and administration in the Socialist Fifth Republic and beyond
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
What people say is often as important as what people do. Saying is also a form of doing. Sometimes it adds understanding to what people do, other times it hides what people do from themselves as well as from others. How people say what they say, and to whom they say it, moreover, may very well alter the sense of their words, which may thus mean different things to different people. So it was with the rhetoric surrounding the issue of decentralization.
The reality of French local government, as we have already seen in the previous chapter, was that local elected officials had a great deal of hidden power and authority, both political and administrative. But these officials were the last to admit this, using a rhetoric that instead suggested they were essentially powerless next to the central and centralizing state, and apolitical next to the political and politicizing national government. With this rhetoric, in effect, they threw up a wall of words to obscure the reality of an informally decentralized and politicized periphery.
With the rhetoric of centralization, more specifically, local elected officials strove to hide their complicity with local administrators from public view. By complaining about the administrative centralization of the state and its financial stranglehold over local authorities, they sought to draw attention away from the reasonable amount of administrative freedom and financial resources their complicity afforded them.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Democratizing FranceThe Political and Administrative History of Decentralization, pp. 222 - 263Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991