ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the emergence of the infra-municipal echelon in France’s three largest cities, Paris, Marseille, and Lyon, is in keeping with the general approach. It looks at the somewhat hybrid institution that was legislatively created in the early 1980s for these three cities: arrondissement councils and mayors. The arrondissement is an old administrative sub-unit of these three cities which have developed through inclusion of surrounding boroughs until the beginning of the 20th century. The chapter examines how with the arrival of significant numbers of district mayors from the political camp opposed to that in power in central city governments, a dynamic of differentiation took over. Central city government resistance to opposition arrondissement mayors’ initiatives hardly proved a real obstacle, however. Neighbourhood councils and forms of participatory democracy have proved to be a source of legitimacy for opposition mayors. Paris opposition mayors demanded that three of the law’s provisions be applied more rigorously.
