Bulletin n. 2-3/2012
October 2012-February 2013
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Stephenson Paul J.
    Napoleon, Nostalgia and Number Plates: An Analysis of the Reactions to the Attali Commission's Proposal to Abolish the French Département
    in Journal of Contemporary European Studies , vol. 20, issue 4 ,  2012 ,  477-495
    ABSTRACT: Soon into his term as President, Nicolas Sarkozy commissioned Jacques Attali2. Attali, J. 2005. C'était François Mitterrand, Paris: Fayard. View all references, former adviser to François Mitterrand, to investigate ways to ‘free up’ economic growth. Decision 260 of the report published in February 2008 recommended doing away with the French department completely. The report reignited a decades-long debate about streamlining the levels of France's public administration. Drawing on websites and internet blogs, including Attali's2. Attali, J. 2005. C'était François Mitterrand, Paris: Fayard. View all references own, this article examines civil society reactions to the proposal, uncovering diverse and conflicting attitudes towards the department, while revealing it to be the most ‘accessible’ expression of the Republic, bound up with the self. In many senses, this artificial political construct, purposely created to bear no reference to history or belonging, has paradoxically become a significant carrier of French culture and territorial identity.
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