Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/892

 840 FRANCE

for most purposes, as part of France proper. The department has re- presentatives of all the Ministries, and is placed under a Prefect, nominated by Government, and having wide and undefined functions. He is assisted by a Prefecture Council, an administrative body, whose advice he may take without being bound to follow it. The Prefect is a representative of the Executive, and, as such, supervises the execution of the laws, issues police regulations, supplies information on matters which concern the depart- ment, nominates subordinate officials, and has under his control all officials of the State. There is a Sub- Prefect in every arrondissement. except in those containing the capitals of departments and the department of the Seine.

The unit of local government is the commune, the size and population of which vary very much. There were, in 1911, in the 87 departments into which France was then divided, 36,241 communes. Most of them (31,873) have less than 1,500 inhabitants, and 19,269 have even less than 500 ; while 134 communes only have more than 20,000 inhabitants. In 1910 Alsace and Lorraine had 1,705 communes of which 880 had less than 500 inhabitants. There were thus 37,946 communes, in the present area of France, of which 20,069 had less than 500 inhabitants. The local affairs of the commune are under a Municipal Council, composed of from 10 to 36 members, elected by universal suffrage, and by the scrutin de liste for 4 years by Frenchmen after 21 years and 6 months' residence ; but each act of the Council must receive the approval of the Prefect, while many must be submitted to the Council General or even to the President of the Republic, before becoming lawful. Even the commune's quota of direct taxation is settled by persons (rtpartiteurs) chosen by the Prefect from among the lists of candidates drawn up by the Municipal Council.

Each Municipal Council elects a Mayor, who is both the representative of the commune and the agent of the central government. He is the head of the local police and, with his assistants, acts under the orders of the Prefect.

In Paris the Municipal Council is composed of 80 members ; each of the 20 arrondissements into which the city is subdivided has its own Mayor. The place of the Mayor of Paris is taken by the Prefect of the Seine, and, in part, by the Prefect of Police. Lyons has an elected Mayor, but the control of the police is vested in the Prefect of the department of the Rhone.

The next unit is the canton ('2,915 in France before 1914), which is composed of an average of 12 communes, although some of the largest com- munes are, on the contrary, divided into several cantons. It is a seat of a justice of the peace {juge de paix), but is not an administrative unit.

The district, or arrondissement (385 in France), has an elected eonseil d' arrondissement, with as many members as there are cantons, its chief function being to allot among the communes their respective parts in the direct taxes assigned to each arrondissement by the Council General. That body stands under the control of the Sub- Prefect. A varying number of arrondissements form a department, which has its eonseil glntral renewed by universal suffrage to the extent of one-half every three years (one Councillor for each canton). These conseils deliberate upon all economical affairs of the department, the repartition of the direct taxes among the arrondissements, the roads, normal schools, and undertakings for the relief of the poor. Their decisions are con- trolled by the Prefect, and may be annulled by the President of the Republic.

Area and Population. I. Progress and Present Condition. The legal population at the date of the last two enumeratioas was :—