AFSP Webinar #7 – French Regions: Autonomous Political Entities?

AFSP Webinar #7

French Regions: Autonomous Political Entities?

Tuesday, June 1, 2021, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

To participate in the webinar and interact via Zoom, you must register hereusing the online form

Compared to many other European Union countries, French regions have limited political capacity: they have restricted budgets and limited own-source tax revenues, and they face competition from departments and metropolitan areas. The merger of several of them in 2014—imposed by the central government against their will—highlighted their vulnerability. However, at the same time, the MAPTAM and NOTRe laws (2014 and 2015) granted them new powers, notably the management of European structural funds and the development of prescriptive territorial plans.

Six years later, where do the French regions stand? Have the mergers and new powers strengthened them? Are there differences in the policies implemented from one region to another? Are their policies proving to be innovative? Are the regions truly autonomous political entities clearly recognized by voters, as the high profile of some of their presidents might suggest? To what extent are regional elections primarily midterm elections rather than being driven by regional issues? Conversely, are we witnessing the emergence of partisan alliance dynamics that vary from one region to another?

Featuring:

• Anne-Cécile Douillet, professor of political science at the University of Lille and researcher at CERAPS
• Emmanuel Négrier, research director at the CNRS, CEPEL-University of Montpellier
• Romain Pasquier, Research Director at the CNRS, ARENES, Sciences Po Rennes

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

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