Canton of France

The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's departments and arrondissements.

Apart from their role as organizational units in relation to certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, the chief purpose of the cantons today is to serve as constituencies for the election of members of the representative assemblies established in each of France's territorial departments ( departmental councils, formerly general councils). For this reason, such elections were known in France as "cantonal elections", until 2015 when their name was changed to "departmental elections" to match the departmental councils' name.

As of 2015, there were 2,054 cantons in France.

Most of them group together a number of communes (the lowest administrative division of the French Republic), although larger communes may be included in more than one canton, since the cantons – in marked contrast to the communes, which have between more than two million inhabitants (Paris) and just one person (Rochefourchat) – are intended to be roughly equal in size of population.

Role and administration

The role of the ''canton'' is, essentially, to provide a framework for departmental elections. Each ''canton'' elects a woman and a man to represent it at the '' conseil départemental du département'' – or departmental 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 comprise several smaller ''communes''. In the latter case, administrative services, the '' gendarmerie'' headquarters for example, are often situated in the principal town (''chef-lieu'') of the ''canton'', although there are exceptions, such as ''cantons'' Gaillon-Campagne and Sarreguemines-Campagne, which have in common a "chief-town" which does not belong to either ''canton''.

For statistical ( INSEE) purposes, the twenty arrondissements of Paris – the administrative subdivisions of that city – are sometimes considered ''cantons'', but they serve no greater electoral function.INSEE
Populations légales 2012 des cantons – découpage 2015

''Cantons'' also form legal districts, as seats of '' Tribunaux d'instance'' (''TI'') or Courts of First Instance. Historically, the ''cantons'' are called ''justices de paix'' or "district courts".

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'' (28 January 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 were the basis of the administrative divisions of France from then until 2015, although ''cantons'' with small populations were eliminated and new ''cantons'' created in areas of strong demographic growth. On the whole, their number increased appreciably.

In May 2013 a law was adopted that reduced the number of cantons drastically.LOI n° 2013-403 du 17 mai 2013 relative à l'élection des conseillers départementaux, des conseillers municipaux et des conseillers communautaires, et modifiant le calendrier électoral
/ref> This law came into effect at the French departmental elections in March 2015. Before the cantonal reform, there were 4,032 cantons; afterwards there were 2,054, with the cantons in Martinique and Guyana abolished.Code officiel géographique au 1er janvier 2016
INSEE The 2013 reform law also changed the representation of the cantons in the departmental councils: each canton is now represented by a man and a woman.

Statistics

The number of ''cantons'' varies from one ''département'' to another; the Territoire de Belfort

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