Departments of France
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-03-08

Departments of France, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38523 / CC BY SA 3.0

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Departments of France

In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government below the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the commune. Ninety-six departments are in metropolitan France, and five are overseas departments, which are also classified as regions. Departments are further subdivided into 334 arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons; the last two have no autonomy, and are used for the organisation of police, fire departments, and sometimes, elections.

Each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council ("conseil départemental" (sing.), "conseils départementaux" (plur.)). From 1800 to April 2015, these were called general councils ("conseil général" (sing.), "conseils généraux" (plur.)). Each council has a president. Their main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school ("collège") buildings and technical staff, and local roads and school and rural buses, and a contribution to municipal infrastructures. Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents the government; however, regions have gained importance in this regard since the 2000s, with some department-level services merged into region-level services.

The departments were created in 1790 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity; the title "department" is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after physical geographical features (rivers, mountains, or coasts...