Reforming Local Government in France: the case of two communautés urbaines

Is French local government undergoing a pragmatic revolution? Through the analysis of reforms undertaken in two urban communities (coordinating bodies between a major city and its peripheral towns and cities), this paper argues that although often limited in their immediate results, these reforms reveal deeper transformations going on in an otherwise highly institutionalized setting. These transformations could very well, in the long run, introduce new norms, procedures and references in the conduct of public administration and public policy, away from a traditional, substantialist attitude, towards a more pragmatic, problem-oriented position. This in turn could call for farther-reaching reforms at the national level