Talk:Commune in France

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POV

The article, on several occasions, passes some judgment on political decisions: it seems to advocate the regrouping of communes, it claims that France is a very conservative country, etc. I think it would need a dose of neutralization. David.Monniaux 19:04, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Personally I don't agree. The word "conservative" in itself implies no particular judgement. It just describes reality. Something conservative is something that remains stable over time, that doesn't change. On that respect, we can say that administrative limits in France are conservative, because it is a fact that they have seldom changed in the last 200 years. To say that France is a conservative country in terms of its administrative limits is just a statement of fact. It is plain obvious that reforms of the administrative grid have been opposed widely for decades, and that there are many people absolutely opposed to getting rid of the départements. That's plain conservatism. Saying that, we don't imply anything good or bad about it. There are people who love conservatism, and there are people who hate it. We just describe reality. Hardouin 00:27, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

No, "conservative" is a judgment on the willingness of people to change things, and in this case was not applied only with respect to administrative limits. One may note for instance that France is not very conservative when it comes to changing constitutional rules, for instance.

Apart from that, the article made ample use of laudative or depreciative words. Let us for instance consider this sentence I rephrased: Another absurd example is Paris [...]. "Absurd" is in the eye of the beholder. I am sure that there are many thoughtful considerate and intelligent people who could provide us with some good reasons why Paris should not be merged into the same commune as the "little crown" (I note for instance that the government had to split the Seine département, which encompassed Paris and the little crown, because it was unwieldy to manage).

So, please, let us remove the judgmental bits. This article is very well documented, but it should not be an advocacy piece. David.Monniaux 05:55, 2 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The future of communes

I read : It is unclear yet where the trend is going. Will the intercommunal structures have representatives directly elected by the citizens in the future, as the Mauroy Report proposed in 2000? But then wouldn't this leave the communes like hollow administrative units?

But de facto, most of French communes are already nothing but administrative units, the main role of the mayor being acting as a deconcentrated agent of the state, all decentralized power being given to the intercommunal structure (and tht explain Mauroy's choice to leave the seat of Mayor in Lille to become President of the intercommunality).

What you say is exagerated. For one, there's a very important power left in the hands of mayors: municipal police. As heads of municipal police, mayors are not acting as deconcentrated agents of the state. Also, not all matters have been transferred to the intercommunal structures. In communities of communes especially, the mayors still keep many powers. Hardouin 17:28, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I agree with you, but I think there is already an obvious trend that leads to the suppression of almost all decentralized power of the mayor. Therefore and I don't think Mauroy's rapport will change anything about that. Revas 21:52, 12 April (UTC)

Template

For noate I made a template Template:French communes to Mirror the one on FR wikipedia... with a few minor changes you can take the data from the French pages and add it to the English ones... See the template talk page for some issues or anything else about it. gren 23:36, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

(list of) communes in French Polynesia

There is no list of communes of French Polynesia. French Polynesia is also not mentioned in the article Commune in France nor in the article Lists of communes of France. Do the communes in French Polynesia have some kind of special status and are not mentioned because of that?

In the French-language Wikipedia, there is already a collection (although not a list) of communes in French Polynesia: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communes_de_Polyn%C3%A9sie_fran%C3%A7aise.

Here is also a list (the numbers in this list coincide with the list in the French-language Wikipedia):
http://www.statoids.com/ypf.html .

Yet another list (with missing numbers):
http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1126512541&men=gcis&lng=en&gln=xx&dat=32&srt=npan&col=aohdq&geo=-169.

-- Citylover 08:17, 12 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

French Polynesia is divided into communes, like the rest of France. These communes have the regular status of French communes. Hardouin 14:18, 21 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

If we are to nitpick, one may point that not all France is divided into communes (the TAAF aren't, for instance, and I'm unsure about Wallis and Futuna with their customary rulers). David.Monniaux 05:37, 2 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions

I read the article, and it is very interesting. Here are is a suggestion:

Doesn't the word communism come from commune ? If so, it could be mentionned

Ze miguel 10:35, 20 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Not exactly, commune is derived from the latin word "communia" meaning a gathering of people sharing a common life- aka a community, and communism is from the latin "communis" meaning things held in common.Xerex 12:14, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is what the Online Etymology Dictionary says:

communism : 1843, from Fr. communisme (c.1840) from commun (O.Fr. comun; see common) + -isme. Originally a theory of society; as name of a political system, 1850, a translation of Ger. Kommunismus, in Marx and Engels' "Manifesto of the German Communist Party." The first use of communist (n.) is by Goodwyn Barmby, who founded the London Communist Propaganda Society in 1841. Shortened form Commie attested from 1940.

Hardouin 18:59, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Clarification?

In the 'Intercommunality' section, it says:

There are two types of intercommunal structures:

* ...
* ...

These three structures are given varying levels of fiscal power, ...

Could someone who knows their facts on this make this piece a little clearer please?

Scandinavia also use the word Commune (Kommune)

Maybe we could put that in somewere? --Comanche cph 08:47, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

In commune (subnational entity). — Poulpy 10:42, 19 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]