Франция қалаларының әкімшілік бөліністері

Territorial subdivision of some French communes

In France, a municipal arrondissement ( aʁɔ̃dismɑ̃ mynisipal) is a subdivision of the commune, and is used in the country's three largest cities: Paris, Lyon and Marseille. It functions as an even lower administrative division, with its own mayor. Although usually referred to simply as "arrondissements", they should not be confused with departmental arrondissements, which are groupings of communes within one département.

The first municipal arrondissements were created on 22 August 1795 when the city (commune) of Paris was split into twelve arrondissements. At the time, the National Convention was wary of the municipalities in big cities because of their revolutionary moods (Paris) or because of their counter revolutionary leanings (Lyon and many other cities in the provinces), and so the Convention decided to split the large cities (communes) of France into smaller communes. Paris, unlike the other large cities, was not split into smaller communes, but into arrondissements, a newly created category, and the central municipality was abolished. In 1805 Napoleon reunited all the large cities of France, but Paris was left divided. Eventually, in 1834, the city (commune) of Paris was reunited, with a municipal council for the whole city, but without a mayor, the municipality being ruled by the prefect of the department of Seine and by the Prefecture of Police. The twelve arrondissements were preserved, being needed for the local administration of people in such a large and populous city as Paris. On 31 December 1859, the central government enlarged the city of Paris, annexing the suburban communes surrounding Paris, and the arrondissements were reorganised due to the enlargement. Twenty arrondissements with new boundaries were set up and they are still the arrondissements found today in Paris. In the case of Lyon, in 1852, after more than fifty years of hesitation, the central government finally allowed Lyon to annex its immediate suburbs, which had become extremely populous due to the Industrial Revolution. The commune of Lyon annexed the communes of Croix Rousse, La Guillotière, and Vaise. Wary of the new size of the city and the power held by the municipality, the central government decided to divide Lyon into five arrondissements, and the office of mayor of Lyon was abolished. The prefect of the department of Rhône was left to rule the municipality. In 1881, the office of mayor of Lyon was re established, and the commune of Lyon reverted to the standard status of French communes. However, the arrondissements were maintained, still being needed in such a populous city. New arrondissements were created in Lyon in 1867, 1912 and 1957 by splitting the third and seventh arrondissements. In 1963, Lyon annexed the commune of Saint Rambert l'Île Barbe, and in 1964, the ninth arrondissement of Lyon was created as a result of the annexation, thus reaching the final arrangement of nine arrondissements found in Lyon today. In 1977, the office of mayor of Paris was re established after almost 183 years of abolition, but the arrondissements were left untouched. In 1981, the Socialists won the French general elections and in the following year, they passed several key laws redefining the powers of the regions, departments, and communes, with the clear objective of ushering in a less centralised France. On 31 December 1982, the so called "PLM Law" (Loi PLM) was passed, where PLM stands for Paris Lyon Marseille. These three communes were given a special status, derogating from the general status of communes, and were officially divided into municipal arrondissements. Where arrondissements already existed, in Paris and Lyon, the law preserved the already existing boundaries. In Marseille, where there were no arrondissements before 1982, sixteen arrondissements were set up. The municipal arrondissements were given an official status by the law, each with own their town hall (mairie d'arrondissement) and mayor (maire d'arrondissement). For the first time in history, arrondissement councils (conseils d'arrondissement) were created in the arrondissements, directly elected by the inhabitants of each. The city halls (mairies) of Paris, Marseille and Lyon were preserved above the mairies d'arrondissement, with a central mayor for each city overseeing the arrondissements. In these three cities, the arrondissements were made the administrative unit dealing directly with citizens. For all necessary queries and official business (for example, birth, marriage and death registrations and records), citizens go to their respective mairie d'arrondissement. The city hall (mairie centrale) does not generally have direct contact with the citizens and is in charge of larger matters such as economic development or local taxation. It was felt that the arrondissements should deal with the individual matters of citizens, the local arrondissement town halls being more accessible than the centralised city hall. (See "Rights and duties of the arrondissement council and mayor" below.) The law was largely welcomed but some wondered why it was applied only to Paris, Lyon and Marseille. These three cities are the largest in France (with 2,125,246 inhabitants in Paris, 798,430 inhabitants in Marseille, and 466,000 inhabitants in Lyon) and the law was meant to have the local administrations become more accessible and tied to their respective citizens. However, many thought the law could have been applied to other populous cities, in particular to the fourth largest city of France, Toulouse (435,000 inhabitants), and the fifth largest city, Nice (342,738 inhabitants); both cities where the central city halls have to deal with a large number of citizens. Nonetheless, to this day only Paris, Lyon and Marseille are divided into municipal arrondissements. In 1987, a new law assigned the sixteen arrondissements of Marseille to eight secteurs, two arrondissements per secteur, as explained above; and in Marseille there are now only eight mairies d'arrondissement, each one administering both arrondissements of each secteur.