Editing Departments of France (section)

==General characteristics==
{{Main|Administrative divisions of France}}
{{See also|List of French departments by population}}

=== Government and administration ===
[[File:Administration territoriale française.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Administrative divisions of France]]

The departmental seat of government is known as the [[prefectures in France|prefecture]] ({{lang|fr|préfecture}}) or {{lang|fr|chef-lieu de département}} and is generally a town of some importance roughly at the geographical centre of the department. This was determined according to the time taken to travel on horseback from the periphery of the department. The goal was for the prefecture to be accessible on horseback from any town in the department within 24 hours. The prefecture is not necessarily the largest city in the department: for instance, in [[Saône-et-Loire]] department the capital is [[Mâcon]], but the largest city is [[Chalon-sur-Saône]]. Departments may be divided into {{lang|fr|[[arrondissements of France|arrondissements]]}}. The capital of an arrondissement is called a [[subprefectures in France|subprefecture]] ({{lang|fr|sous-préfecture}}) or {{lang|fr|chef-lieu d'arrondissement}}.

Each department is administered by a [[departmental council (France)|departmental council]] ({{lang|fr|conseil départemental}}), an assembly elected for six years by [[universal suffrage]], with the [[List of presidents of departmental councils (France)|President of the Departmental Council]] as executive of the department. Before 1982, the chief executive of the department was the [[prefect (France)|prefect]] ({{lang|fr|préfet}}), who represents the [[Government of France]] in each department and is appointed by the [[President of the French Republic]]. The prefect is assisted by one or more sub-prefects ({{lang|fr|sous-préfet}}) based in the subprefectures of the department. Since 1982, the prefect retains only the powers that are not delegated to the department councils. In practice, their role has been largely limited to preventing local policy from conflicting with national policy.

The departments are further divided into [[communes of France|communes]], governed by [[municipality|municipal councils]]. As of 2013, there were 36,681 communes in France. In the [[overseas departments and territories of France|overseas territories]], some communes play a role at departmental level. [[Paris]], the country's capital city, is a commune as well as a department.

[[File:Carte démographique de la France.svg|thumb|Population density in the departments (2007). The broken lines mark the approximate boundaries of the [[empty diagonal]]. The solid line is the Le Havre-Marseille line, to the east of which lives 60% of the French population.]]
In continental France ([[metropolitan France]], excluding [[Corsica]]), the [[median]] land area of a department is {{convert|5965|km2|abbr=on}}, which is two-and-a-half times the median land area of the [[ceremonial counties of England]] and the [[preserved counties of Wales]] and slightly more than three-and-half times the median land area of a [[county (United States)|county of the United States]]. At the 2001 census, the median population of a department in continental France was 511,000 inhabitants, which is 21 times the median population of a United States county, but less than two-thirds of the median population of a ceremonial county of England and Wales. Most of the departments have an area of between 4,000 and 8,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (1500 to 3000 sq. mi.), and a population between 320,000 and 1 million. The largest in area is [[Gironde]] ({{convert|10,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}), while the smallest is the city of Paris ({{convert|105|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}). The most populous is [[Nord (French department)|Nord]] (2,550,000) and the least populous is [[Lozère]] (74,000).

=== Numbering ===

The departments are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in [[postal code]]s, in [[Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques|INSEE]] codes (including "social security numbers") and on [[Vehicle registration plates of France|vehicle number plates]]. Initially the numbers corresponded to the alphabetical order of the names of the departments, but several changed their names and some have been divided, so the correspondence became less exact. Alphanumeric codes 2A and 2B were used for [[Corsica]] while it was split but it has since reverted to 20. The two-digit code "98" is used by [[Monaco]]. Together with the [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2]] country code FR, the numbers form the [[ISO 3166-2]] country subdivision codes for the metropolitan departments. The overseas departments have three digits.{{citation needed|date = February 2023}}

=== Relation to national government ===

Originally, the relationship between the departments and the central government was left somewhat ambiguous. While citizens in each department elected their own officials, the local governments were subordinated to the central government, becoming instruments of national integration. By 1793, however, the revolutionary government had turned the departments into transmission belts for policies enacted in Paris. With few exceptions, the departments had this role until the early 1960s.

===Political party preferences===
These maps cannot be used as a useful resource of voter preferences, because Departmental Councils are elected on a two-round system, which drastically limits the chances of fringe parties, if they are not supported on one of the two rounds by a moderate party. After the 1992 election, the left had a majority in only 21 of the 100 departments; after the 2011 election, the left dominated 61 of the 100 departments. (Mayotte only became a department after the election.)
<gallery>
File:Cantonales_1998(dom).png|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the cantonal elections of 1998
File:Cantonales 2001.svg|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2001
File:Cantonales 2004.svg|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2004
File:Conseils généraux 2008.svg|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2008
File:Conseils généraux 2011.png|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2011
File:Presidents of French departments current.svg|Party affiliation of the General Council Presidents of the various departments in the elections of 2015
</gallery>
Key to the parties:
* [[Centrism|Divers Centre]] = Independents of the centre or [[Democratic Movement (France)|Democratic Movement]] (Mouvement démocrate)
* Divers Droite (DVD) = Independent conservatives
* Divers Gauche (DVG) = [[Miscellaneous Left|Independent left-wing politicians]]
* MPF = [[Movement for France]] (Mouvement pour la France) (right)
* Nouveau Centre = [[New Centre]] (centre or centre-right)
* PCF = [[French Communist Party]] (Parti communiste français)
* PRG = [[Radical Party of the Left]] (Parti radical de gauche)
* PS = [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] (Parti socialiste)
* UDF = [[Union for French Democracy]] (Union pour la démocratie française) succeeded by Democratic Movement
* UMP = [[Union for a Popular Movement]] (Union pour un mouvement populaire)