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19-618: It is the seat of a canton . After the Roman city of Benearnum (today's Lescar) was razed by the Vikings in 841, Morlaàs became the capital of the ancient province of Béarn . It remained the capital until the 12th century, when Orthez took over. This Pyrénées-Atlantiques geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cantons of France The cantons of France ( French pronunciation: [kɑ̃tɔ̃] ) are territorial subdivisions of

38-433: 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,

57-429: A prefecture , but in various post- Roman empire cases there is a prefect without a prefecture or vice versa . The words "prefect" and "prefecture" are also used, more or less conventionally, to render analogous words in other languages, especially Romance languages . Praefectus was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking officials in ancient Rome , whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it

76-643: The Conseils régionaux ) in order to administer the subdivisional entities ( collectivités territoriales ) of the nation (law from 2 March 1982). The changes have gradually altered the function of the prefect, who is still the chief representative of the State in a department, but without the omnipotent function of chief administrator. Instead, the prefect has acquired the non-titular roles of chief controller of regional, departmental, and municipal public accounts, and of chief inspector of good (i.e. law-abiding) governance of

95-663: 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

114-604: 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. 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. The number of cantons varies from one département to another. The Territoire de Belfort has

133-472: 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,

152-585: The Castle in the German language). The term is used by the Catholic Church , which based much of its canon law terminology on Roman law, in several different ways. In the context of schools, a prefect is a pupil who has been given certain responsibilities in the school, similar to the responsibilities given to a hall monitor or safety patrol members. Many college preparatory boarding schools utilize

171-643: The Interior, which makes him unique as usually in French towns and cities the chief of the local police is subordinate to the mayor, who is the local representative of the minister in police matters. In Paris, the prefect of police ( préfet de police ) is the officer in charge of co-ordinating the city's police forces. The local police in Japan are divided among prefectures too. In several countries of Latin America,

190-469: The authorities of the respective territorial entities. A préfet maritime ( maritime prefect ) is a French admiral ( amiral ) who is commissioned to be the chief commander of a zone maritime (i.e. a section of the French territorial waters and the respective shores). In Paris, the préfet de police ( prefect of police ) is the head of the city's police under the direct authority of the Minister of

209-454: The fewest at 9, while Nord has the most at 41. The average figure is about 21. Prefects Prefect (from the Latin praefectus , substantive adjectival form of praeficere : "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's office, department, or area of control is called

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228-505: 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. This law came into effect at

247-491: The position of prefect as a high student leadership position. In the 1980s, under the presidency of François Mitterrand (1981–1995), a fundamental change in the role of the prefect (and subprefect) took place. The previously extremely centralized French Fifth Republic was gradually decentralized by the creation of administrative regions and the devolution of central state powers into regions, departments, and communes (municipalities). New elected authorities were created (e.g.

266-664: The rank of prefect is still in use. In the Investigations Police of Chile (Policia de Investigaciones de Chile) the rank of prefect is reserved for the highest-ranking officers. On the other hand, in Argentina the Argentine Federal Penitentiary Service (Servicio Penitenciario Argentino) also use the rank of prefect as a high-ranking officer. Several countries of Latin America use the term "prefecture" (prefectura) to denominate

285-594: 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

304-404: The twenty arrondissements of Paris – the administrative subdivisions of that city – are sometimes considered cantons , but they serve no greater electoral function. 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". The cantons were created in 1790 at

323-604: 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. The role of

342-558: 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

361-487: Was with elected Magistrates) but conferred by delegation from a higher authority. They did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration. Especially in Medieval Latin , præfectus was used to refer to various officers—administrative, military, judicial, etc.—usually alongside a more precise term in the vernacular (such as Burggraf , which literally means Count of

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