The drafting of the new French regions: The party politics of regional reform

Decentralization has been a matter of partisan divide in most European countries in the past decades, usually supported by parties excluded from power or with a strong territorialized support. On the basis of an analysis of party discourse and legislative behaviour and the concerned literature, this article aims to interpret the changes to regional governance and powers enacted in France in the last 5 years, in the light of decade-long political competition on this dimension. The laws no. 2010-1563 and 2015-29 aimed to rationalize a cumbersome and costly local government system. They confirm the divisive nature of territorial government reform in a majoritarian political system such as France.