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The municipal arrondissement (French: arrondissement municipal, French pronunciation: [aʁɔ̃dismɑ̃ mynisipal]) is a subdivision of the commune, used in the 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 an "arrondissements", they should not be confused with departmental arrondissements, which are groupings of communes within one département.
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There are 45 municipal arrondissements in France: 20 in Paris (see: Arrondissements of Paris), nine in Lyon (see: Arrondissements of Lyon), and 16 in Marseille. However, a law in 1987 assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseille to eight secteurs ("areas"), two arrondissements by secteur. Thus, in effect, Marseille can be more properly described as being divided into eight secteurs, the 16 arrondissements having been made hollow units.
Municipal arrondissements do not have names, except in Paris, where their names are seldom used. In Paris, people are well-used to the arrondissements, and when asked where they live they will answer with the number of their arrondissement. In Lyon, three arrondissements – Vieux Lyon (fifth), la Croix Rousse (fourth) and Vaise (ninth) – are generally referred to by name, while the others are referred to by number. In Marseille, it is common for people to refer to the names of the neighborhoods, such as Ste. Anne or Mazargues, but also to the number of the arrondissements.
Municipal arrondissements are used in the five-digit postal codes of France. The first two digits are the number of the département in which the address is located (75 for Paris; 69 for Rhône in which Lyon is located; thirteen for Bouches-du-Rhône in which Marseille is located), then the last three digits are the number of the arrondissement. So the postal code of a person living in the 5th arrondissement of Paris will be "75005 Paris", and for a person living in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille it will be "13014 Marseille". The only exception is the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which is divided between two postal codes: "75016 Paris" in the south of the arrondissement, and "75116 Paris" in the north of the arrondissement.
The arrondissements of Paris form a clockwise spiral or snail pattern beginning from the first in the centre. Those of Marseille form a meandering path from the first down through the southwest, to the southeast, northeast and finally to the northwest. The arrondissements of Lyon do not form any discernible pattern at all, and only two pairs of consecutive numbers – the first and second, and the seventh and eighth – border each other.
Some other large cities of France are also divided between several postal codes, although there the postal codes do not correspond to arrondissements.
The first municipal arrondissements were created on August 22, 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 préfet of the Seine département and by the préfet de police. The twelve arrondissements were preserved, being needed for the local administration of people in such a large and populous city as Paris.
On December 31, 1859 the central government enlarged the city of Paris, annexing the suburban communes surrounding Paris, and the arrondissements were reorganized due to the enlargement. Twenty arrondissements with new boundaries were set up, and they are still the arrondissements found today in Paris.
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In the case of Lyon, in 1852, after more than fifty years of hesitations, the central government finally allowed Lyon to annex its immediate suburbs, which had become extremely populous with 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 préfet of the Rhône département 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, again being needed in such a populous city as Lyon. New arrondissements were created in Lyon in 1867, 1912, and 1957 by splitting the 3rd and 7th arrondissements. In 1963 Lyon annexed the commune of Saint-Rambert-l'Île-Barbe, and in 1964 the 9th arrondissement of Lyon was created as a result of the annexation, thus reaching a total of nine arrondissements, which are still the 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 1982, the Socialists won the French general elections in 1981, and in 1982 they passed several key laws redefining the powers of the régions, départements, and communes, with the clear objective of ushering into a less centralized France. On December 31, 1982 was passed the so-called "PLM Law" (Loi PLM), where PLM stands for Paris Lyon Marseille. These three communes were given a special status, derogatory to the general status of communes, and the three communes were officially divided into arrondissements. Where arrondissements already existed such as in Paris or Lyon, the law preserved the boundaries of these already existing arrondissements. In Marseille, where apparently there were no arrondissements before 1982, 16 arrondissements were set up.
The municipal arrondissements were given an official status by the law, with each their town hall (mairie d'arrondissement), and each their 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 the arrondissements. The three city halls (mairies) of Paris, Marseille, and Lyon were preserved above the mairies d'arrondissement, with a mayor (maire) for each city above the maires d'arrondissement.
In these three cities the arrondissements were made the administrative unit dealing with citizens. For birth or marriage recordings, for all necessary queries and official business, citizens go to the mairie d'arrondissement, while the city hall (mairie centrale) does not have contacts with the citizens and is in charge of only larger matters such as economic development or local taxation. It was felt that the arrondissements would be closer to citizens, who would have an easier access to the local arrondissement town hall rather than to a centralized city hall.
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 administration closer to citizens in so populated cities. However, many thought the law could have been applied to other 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 also have to deal with a large number of citizens. Nonetheless, to this day only Paris, Lyon, and Marseille are divided into arrondissements.
In 1987, a new law assigned the 16 arrondissements of Marseille to 8 secteurs, 2 arrondissements by secteur, as explained above; and in Marseille there are now only 8 mairies d'arrondissement, each one administering the 2 arrondissements of each secteur.
The PLM Law of 1982 governs the status of the municipal arrondissements.
Unlike French communes, municipal arrondissements have no legal "personality", they are not considered legal entities and have no legal capacity; also, they have no budget of their own.
The three communes of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille are ruled by a municipal council and a mayor. In Paris the municipal council is called Paris council (conseil de Paris). Each arrondissement (or secteur in Marseille) has an arrondissement council (conseil d'arrondissement) and an arrondissement mayor. The arrondissement council is made up for one-third of members of the municipal council elected at the commune level above the arrondissements, and for two-thirds of councilors elected inside the arrondissement. The arrondissement mayor is elected by the arrondissement council. He must be a member of the municipal council of the commune.
The law of February 27, 2002 on local or "proximity" democracy increased the powers of the arrondissement councils and of the arrondissement mayors.
Rights and duties of the arrondissement council and mayor: