Webinar AFSP #7 - French regions: autonomous political spaces?

AFSP Webinar #7

French regions: autonomous political spaces?

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

To take part in the webinar and interact via ZOOM, please register here via the online form.

Compared to many other European Union countries, France's regions have limited political capacity: they have limited budgets and tax resources of their own, and compete with départements and metropolitan areas. The merger of several of them in 2014, decided by the central government against their will, confirmed their fragility. At the same time, however, the MAPTAM and NOTRe laws (2014 and 2015) entrusted them with new powers, notably the management of European structural funds and the drawing up of prescriptive territorial plans.

Six years on, where do France's regions stand? Have mergers and new powers strengthened them? Are there differences in policy from one region to the next? Are their policies innovative? Are the regions really autonomous political spaces, clearly identified by voters, as the personalization of some of their presidents might suggest? To what extent are regional elections not, for the most part, intermediary elections, rather than being based on regional issues? Conversely, are we witnessing the emergence of partisan alliance dynamics that differ from one region to another?

With the participation of :

• Anne-Cécile Douillet, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lille, researcher at CERAPS
• Emmanuel NégrierCNRS Research Director, CEPEL-Université de Montpellier
• Romain Pasquier, CNRS Research Director, ARENES, Sciences Po Rennes

Webinar organized and moderated by Frédéric Sawicki, professor of political science at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, researcher at CESSP and member of the AFSP board.

Further information : Link