INSTITUCIONALIZACE METROPOLITNÍCH REGIONŮ V NĚMECKU A VE FRANCII VE VZÁJEMNÉM SROVNÁNÍ
THE INSTITUTIONALISATION METROPOLITAN REGIONS IN GERMANY AND FRANCE IN COMPARISON WITH EACH OTHER

Author(s): Jiří Ježek
Subject(s): Governance, Rural and urban sociology, Economic development
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: metropolitan governance; institutional development; inter-municipal cooperation; France; Germany;
Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with identifying the circumstances of the emergence and development of metropolitan governance in Germany and France (two key EU countries with different administrative and political cultures) and to highlight both the advantages and the problems and limits of each solution. It draws on a study of German and French literary sources and interviews with German and French colleagues. The stability of the German institutional framework contrasts with the many administrative reforms in France over the last fifty years. French regions have a limited capacity for action compared to German federal states. The key actors in metropolitan governance are municipalities and cities in Germany and inter-municipal structures in France. In Germany, this is an evolutionarily slow, bottom-up process, gradually responding to emerging challenges and events, whereas in France, metropolitan governments have been institutionalised in a top-down manner. The emergence and development of metropolitan governance is a difficult process, hindered and resisted by established sub-national power structures. As the French experience in particular shows, there is a long and thorny road from theoretical vision (political legitimacy, a high degree of autonomy and relevant territorial delimitation) to practical implementation.

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