The
cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's 342
arrondissements and 100
departments.
Apart from their role as organizational units in certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, the chief purpose of the cantons today is to serve as
constituencies for the election of the members of the representative assembly (General Council) in each department. For this reason, such elections are known in France as "cantonal elections".
There are currently 4,032 cantons.
INSEE (French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies) data Most of them group together a number of
communes (the lowest administrative division of the French Republic), although larger communes may comprise a number of cantons, since the cantons are intended to be roughly equal in size of population – unlike the communes which range in size from more than two million inhabitants (
Paris) to just one person (
Rochefourchat).
Role and administration
The role of the
canton is, essentially, to provide a framework for
departmental elections. Each
canton elects a person to represent it at the
conseil général du département — or general council for the
department, which is the principal administrative division of the French Republic.
In
urban areas, a single
commune generally includes several
cantons. Conversely, in
rural areas, a
canton may comprise several smaller
communes. In which case, administrative services, the
gendarmerie headquarters for example, are often situated in the principal town (
chef-lieu) of the
canton,although exceptions, such as
cantons and , which have in common a "chief-town" which does not belong to either
canton, occur.
For statistical (
INSEE) purposes, the twenty
arrondissements of
Paris — the administrative subdivision of that city — are sometimes considered
cantons, but they serve no greater electoral function.
Cantons also form legal districts, as seats of
Tribunaux d'instance or "Courts of First Instance" (also, "
TI"...). Historically, the
cantons are called
justices de paix or "district courts".
History
The
cantons were created in
1790 at the same time as the
départements by the
Revolutionary Committee for the Division of Territory (
Comité de division). They were more numerous than today (between 40 and 60 to each
département).
Cantons were, at first, grouped into what were called
districts. After the abolition of the
district in
1800, they were reorganized by the
Consulate into
arrondissements. The number of
cantons was then drastically reduced (between 30 and 50 units) by the
Loi du 8 pluviôse an IX (
January 28,
1801), or the "Law for the Reduction of the Number of District Courts", or
Loi portant réduction du nombre de justices de paix in
French. The
département prefects were told by the government to group the
communes within newly established
cantons. The
département lists, once approved by the government, were published in the
Bulletin des lois in
1801 and
1802; these lists are still the basis of the administrative divisions of France in place today, although
cantons with small
populations have been eliminated and new
cantons created in areas of strong demographic growth. On the whole, their number has increased appreciably.
Statistics
The number of
cantons varies from one
département to another; the
Territoire de Belfort, for example, has 15, while
Nord has 79. The island of
Mayotte, which has an administrative form similar to that of a
département, is divided into 19
cantons.
See also
References