Abstract (EN)

Based on recent field research, the paper suggests an interpretative model of territorial government in France. Relations between national and local authorities as well as policy- making processes suggest that the centralized State has faced a major decline of its hegemony and that decentralization reforms have induced a polycentric dynamics. Seven basic characteristics and three key properties of the model are discussed. The emerging model fits neither a new localism nor a new centralism pattern. It is the product of on-going incremental trade-offs between centrifugal and centripetal rationales. This complexity reflects a situation that is under the rather conservative and tight control of national politicians holding multiple local elected mandates.