DEPARTEMENT

largest unit of local government in France and in some former French colonies. The dpartements were originally created in 1790. Each dpartement is governed by an elected general council, which holds responsibility for local services, laws, and budget; an officer called a commissioner represents the national government and is the council's executive agent. Prior to the French Revolution the local unit in France was the military gouvernement, which roughly corresponded to the old provinces, such as Franche Comt, Provence, Bourgogne, Bretagne, and so on. But by the time of the French Revolution this division seemed too closely bound up with the administrative mismanagement of the ancien rgime, and, at the suggestion of the Count de Mirabeau, the provinces were divided into dpartements, which were roughly equal to a certain average of size and population and which derived their names principally from rivers, mountains, or other prominent geographic features. In 1860 three new dpartements were created out of the newly annexed territory of Savoy and Nice. The three dpartements of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle, which were lost after the Franco-German War in 1871, were restored in 1919. Other dpartements have been created on occasion because of population or territorial changes. By the late 20th century the number of dpartements had grown to about 100. The largest city in a dpartement usually serves as the departmental capital. Each dpartement, presided over by its commissioner, is subdivided into arrondissements, each of which is under the administration of a subprefect. Arrondissements are again subdivided into cantons and these into communes, which are somewhat equivalent to the English parish.