ABSTRACT
LOCAL government probably deserves a greater place in a general account of French public administration than in a similar account of administration in Britain. This is because in France local government forms a more integral part of the administrative system than it does in Britain. A marked characteristic of the French system, when compared to the British, is the close link between the organs of central and local government, and the subordination of the latter to the former. This relationship goes back to the ancien régime, though its completion was the work of Napoleon. When Napoleon organized his government in 1799, he established a centralized administrative state. He had no desire to see the emergency of independent sources of local power which might challenge his authority. Since, however, some local administration was necessary as a matter of convenience, he made sure that it was closely linked to the government in Paris. His aim was to place reliable subordinates throughout the provinces on whom he could count to secure his political power and to implement his plans for economic development. What he did, in fact, was to substitute the administrative decentralization of government services for the representative bodies of local government which the Revolution had established between 1789 and 1799. 1
