Contenu du sommaire : L'institution préfectorale

The Present and Future of the Prefectoral Body The durability of the institution of the prefect in France may be explained by a constant, albeit evolving, need of public powers and citizens. The prefect, sent off on practical field missions at the discretion of the govemment, has the task of putting into operation policies of the highest priority. Social crisis has placed the prefect at the heart of policies on employment, inclusion and social housing ; disruptions to public order have underlined the prefect's role as guarantor of public order and security ; threats to the natural environment have made the prefect its defender ; and corruption of public morals has underscored the priority to be given to judicial review of administrative action. Finally, the evolution of administrative territories has provoked the prefect's adaptation to the new role played by the State.

Prefects and the Construction of the Republican State : from a Military to a Managerial Model The institution of the prefect is the product of a long historical process in two respects. On the one hand, a number of factors have contributed to the professional and social stabilisation of the identity of prefects. Thus, prefects corne increasingly from middle class and public sector backgrounds. Moreover, they have, for the most part, a similar university education, a phenomenon which was accentuated in 1945 with the creation of the National School for Administration (known as ENA) which has also had a real democratising effect upon the prefectoral body. On the other hand, constant vulnerability as regards political power (in matters of nomination, mobility and the loss of office) has not led to the institution being called directly into question. On the contrary, prefects have seen their role both affirmed -notably as a resuit of the 1992 policy of State deconcentration -and in a State of evolution : for the future, they are set to become more managerial, not hesitating to get involved personally in management reforms.

Totems and Taboos : the Prefectoral Body, the State and the Public Sector Eric Kerrouche Definitions of the State given by French prefects and under-prefects reveal the omnipresence of an institution, the aims of which are broadly interpreted : the State is an institution which protects, defends and ensures a harmonious society. The State is a force able to impose itself whenever the notion of the public sector cornes into play, even if prefects are also called to take into account the idea of the private sector. The result is that prefects employ a modemist discourse, underlining the archaic, if not the weighty, nature of the administration, while still defending its human and egalitarian dimension.

The Paradoxes of the Prefectoral Body There are two dates which stand out in the history of the institution of the prefect during the Fifth Republic. First, the reform of 1964 had the objective of giving the prefect an authority over State services at local level. In fact, as ‘holder of all ministers'powers', the prefect in practice would be brought into confrontation with heads of service from the different ministries, strengthened by delegations from their various ministers. This reform also created a new organisation, the region, at the head of which is a regional prefect, who is prefect of the department's territorial administrative centre. Secondly, decentralisation in 1982, while strengthening the prefect's powers over State services, has radically altered the content of its activities at the heart of administrative territories : prefects are no longer their guardian nor the executive of departments and regions : they must reposition themselves in response to new local authorities elected by universal suffrage, while the instability of their office over time does them a disservice.

Modernising the Activities of Prefects : the Territorial Project of the State The modernization of French local administration is not a recent idea. Since the 1990s a number of diverse projects have been carried out. But it is really since 1997 that modernisation has been seriously addressed by those in power. Public powers have favored a progressive approach agreed upon by different actors which by the end of 2000 has led to the elaboration of a framework for common action at each of the local levels where central authority is exercised : i.e. State territorial projects. These projects have, thus, been established under the impetus of central administration, by local actors who have enjoyed a good deal of room for maneuver. For the future they have a tool at their disposal and it is up to them to put it to good use.

Prefects up Against Judges : the Emergence of a New Form of Regulation of Local Power The development of criminal liability has had an impact at ail levels of administrative and political action. The prefect is also subject to criminal liability : it being all the more symbolic given that the prefect is the State representative at local level. The engagement of criminal liability is linked to the actions of the prefect and is part of a general move away from State liability. Decentralisation has operated a transfer of competences from the State in favor of local executives. Prefects, deprived of their traditional means of action, must personalise their relationships with those elected locally, whereas previously their powers were sufficient in themselves. Moreover, the type of control which they exercise no longer takes the form of supervision, but is a control of legality carried out a posteriori. The penal judge has, besides, an increasingly important role in reviewing the acts of public authorities, while the State disengages itself and normative rates proliferate and as a result become less effective.

Prefects in Italy Nominated by a decree of the President of the Republic following a selection process carried out by a special commission which takes account of their training and their experience, Italian prefects find their professional position the object of a negotiation process : this is particularly so with regard to their salary. Charged with a plurality of missions (representing the State, engaging in dialogue with local authorities, dealing with matters of security, defending legality and civil liberties...), prefects have at their disposal a ‘government local bureau', which is the result of a reorganisation of the prefect's office.

The Office of Prefect in Greece : from Deconcentration to Decentralisation The Greek State has a recent Constitution (dating back to the 1820s). In order to allow for territorial unification under one central power, a network of prefects -placed at the head of departments -was introduced, to represent the centre and control the periphery. This System lasted until the 1980s. It was a statute of 1986 which instituted the region as a unit of deconcentrated power within the framework of planning policy ; the region to be headed by a Regional General Secretary (RGS), nominated by the govemment. No form of hierarchy was established between the RGS and the prefect. Moreover, a 1994 statute instituted the prefect, henceforth elected, as the executive power in the departaient which is a decentralised unit. The prefect must now act alongside the SGR -whose attributions have been extended and who exercises a control over the legality of acts of the department -and the mayors of large constituencies (an office created following the launching in 1997 of a programme of compulsory merger of communes).

The Civil Governor in Spain : ‘a Prefect who is Not Like the Rest' Origins, Development and Disappearance The office of civil govemor in Spain had a number of precedents. Created in 1849 as the unique high civil authority in each province, the govemor had administrative and political functions. However, from the end of the 19th century, the corporate interests of each ministry progressively reduced the area of competences of civil govemors which became limited to matters of public order. The regime which succeeded the Spanish civil war reaffirmed the end of the govemors' competence in administrative matters and reinforced their political role. While a representative of central power, the civil governor was also head of local administration. The Constitution of 1978, however, introduced a government delegate who was hierarchically superior, and then the 1997 statute on the organisation and functioning of State general administration dealt a fatal blow by replacing the civil govemor with a sub-delegate of the government, who is subordinate to the government delegate.

Russia, Poland : Between Decentralisation and Federalism Prior to 1991, central and local bodies in Russia, like those in Poland, were subject to the authority of the Party. Since 1991, Poland has opted for regionalisation, creating sixteen voïodies, which are autonomous constituencies operating at the level of the region and are autonomous with regard to govemment action. At the head of each of these is a voïvode, a political figure dependent upon the govemment. Russia, on the other hand, has chosen a federalist path, creating eighty-nine subjects of the Federation, directed by elected govemors (Presidents for the Republics and heads of administration for the krais and oblasts). On 13 May 2000, however, in order to ensure the unity of the State, Vladimir Poutine created seven federal districts above the eighty-nine subjects of the Federation in which he has nominated representatives with a full range of powers.

The Function of the Prefect in Japon Within the framework of the centralising reforms of the Meiji era, departments were created and prefects introduced there, along the fines of the French model. Nominated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, they exercise supervision over local authorities. Since 1945 they have been the object of profound changes : henceforth called govemors, albeit still government representatives, they have also become representatives of the population of their department. Elected by direct universal suffrage from among the country's political-administrative elite, they constitute an interface between national and local authority.