Cantons of France
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The cantons of France are administrative divisions subdividing arrondissements and départements. They often group several municipalities (communes).
Cantons number 3,879 among the 329 arrondissements and 100 départements of France.
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[edit] Role and administration
The role of the canton is, essentially, to provide a framework for Regional elections. Each canton elects a person to represent it at the conseil général du département — or general council for the department, which is the principal administrative division of the French Republic.
In urban areas, a single commune generally includes several cantons. Conversely, in rural areas, a canton may be comprised of several smaller communes. In which case, administrative services, the gendarmerie headquarters for example, are often situated in the principal town (chef-lieu) of the canton, although exceptions, such as cantons Gaillon-Countryside and Sarreguemines-Countryside, which have in common a "chief-town" which does not belong to either canton, occur. For statistical (INSEE) purposes, the twenty arrondissements of Paris — the administrative subdivision of that city — are sometimes considered cantons, but they serve no greater electoral function.
Cantons also form legal districts, as seats of Tribunaux d'instance or "Courts of First Instance" (also, "TI"...). Historically, the cantons are called justices de paix or "district courts".
[edit] History
The cantons were created in 1790 at the same time as the départements by the Revolutionary Committee for the Division of Territory (Comité de division). They were more numerous than today (between 40 and 60 to each département). Cantons were, at first, grouped into what were called districts. After the abolition of the district in 1800, they were reorganized by the Consulate into arrondissements. The number of cantons was then drastically reduced (between 30 and 50 units) by the Loi du 8 pluviôse an IX (January 28, 1801), or the "Law for the Reduction of the Number of District Courts", or Loi portant réduction du nombre de justices de paix in French. The département prefects were told by the government to group the communes within newly established cantons. The département lists, once approved by the government, were published in the Bulletin des Lois in 1801 and 1802; these lists are still the basis of the administrative divisions of France in place today, although cantons with small populations have been eliminated and new cantons created in areas of strong demographic growth. On the whole, their number has increased appreciably.
[edit] Statistics
The number of cantons varies from one département to another; the Territoire de Belfort, for example, has 15, while Nord has 79. The island of Mayotte, which has an administrative form similar to that of a département, is divided into 19 cantons.
