ABSTRACT
Planning in France is located in what has historically been a highly centralised and interventionist state. The French state went through a radical restructuring in the decentralisation reforms of the early 1980s in which there was a substantial transfer of powers from national to sub-national government. However, in contrast to the British experience the public sector remains a powerful actor in relation to urban development and planning. The decentralisation reforms and subsequent further reforms of both central administration and central-local relationships represent adjustments within the machinery of government. The boundaries of public and private sectors have not changed in the dramatic ways we saw in the British case. State planning in France has traditionally been concerned with the general economic development of the country encapsulated in the term ‘aménagement du territoire’. National, regional and local levels are all involved in the pursuit of economic development. This chapter starts by reviewing the development of planning competencies in regions and communes following decentralisation. It then goes on to examine significant changes which have occurred at the urban level. Increasing entrepreneurialism in the cities has developed separately from intergovernmental co-operation over urban policy. New institutional relationships have emerged to integrate levels of the state and co-ordinate policy. The decentralisation of planning competencies has raised some concerns about the integrity of the planning system as a whole. Some of the perceived problems concern the detailed practice of ‘urbanisme’—the rules and procedures through which local planning and development decisions are taken. The final section of the chapter looks at the new planning law approved at the end of 1994 which seeks to re-establish the authority of central government. The dominant theme of this chapter is therefore concerned with the reorganisation of governmental institutions following the radical changes of the 1980s. The French case reveals continuing domination of urban planning by the public sector. However, the nature of the state has changed, relationships between levels have become less certain, and there is a continuing search for better intergovernmental relationships and more effective mechanisms for urban development and planning.
