The history of the Departmental Council of Loiret traces the history of the departmental institution as a local authority from its creation in 1790 to the most recent reforms, the evolution of the administrative divisions and of the powers granted to the authority, the chronology of successive presidents, and some key dates characterizing departmental action.
The departments were created in 1790. The new administrative division was intended to allow the State to put an end to the complex network of various local constituencies, eradicate privileges and franchises, and exercise coherent power over the entire territory. For the freedom of management left to the general councillors of the time was limited. First appointed, then elected by census suffrage in 1833, by universal suffrage in 1848, the general councillors were notables in a department that remained essentially agricultural. The presidents were once again appointed by the central power from 1852 to 1870.
The law of August 10, 1871 on general councils modernized the departmental institution by giving it the institutional framework and prerogatives that would prevail, ultimately, for more than a century until the decentralization laws. Seven presidents were elected to the post of president of the general council under the Third Republic, from in 1870 to in 1879.
Under the Vichy regime, the sessions of general councils and departmental commissions were suspended by the law of October 12, 1940. The powers previously entrusted to them were exercised by the prefect, who was assisted by an administrative commission composed of seven to nine members appointed by decree of the Secretary of State for the Interior.
Six elected presidents held the post of president of the general council from 1945 to 1982, under the supervision of the prefect: (1945–1956), (1956–1958), Pierre Perroy (1958–1961), (1961–1964), (1964–1979), and (1979–1995).
The law of March 2, 1982 harmonized local authorities among themselves, stating in its first article: "Communes, departments, and regions administer themselves freely through elected councils." This measure was of crucial importance because, henceforth, not only were the deliberative bodies elected, but the executive bodies as well. It was no longer the Prefect who implemented the policies of the department, but the President of the General Council. The authority thus became fully responsible for its actions; the prefect's control would henceforth be exercised a posteriori and not a priori. The first elected official to exercise the function of president after the decentralization laws was . Éric Doligé succeeded him in 1994.
A new reform took place in 2015. The number of cantons was halved and the electoral system became mixed binomial suffrage. Each canton is represented by one man and one woman, called departmental councillors, allowing the creation of a departmental assembly with exact gender parity, whereas the rate of women's representation had previously been 31% in Loiret (13 women out of 42 elected). The powers were also redefined. was elected president of this new assembly, henceforth called the departmental council.
Formation of the department
Constitutional monarchy (1789–1792)
Although the term "department" was not a revolutionary creation, the National Constituent Assembly, by , planned a new division of the kingdom into seventy-five to eighty-five departments. The aim pursued by the deputies was to put an end to the complex network of various local constituencies, to eradicate privileges and franchises, and thus to establish an instrument of egalitarian uniformity.
A series of decrees of the National Assembly laid the foundations of the new administration in 1790. On January 15, 1790, the number of departments was set at 83, and most of the gave birth to three of the new districts, provisionally called "Orléanois," "Blaisois," and "Pays Chartrain." During the month of January, the deputies of Orléanais and the neighboring departments established their boundaries after lengthy discussions. Their work resulted in the report of January 27, 1790, setting the limits of the "department of Orléans" and the number of districts at seven. At its session of February 3, 1790, the National Assembly adopted the conclusions of this report and of its Division Commission, and decreed that "the department of Orléanois, of which Orléans is the capital, is divided into seven districts (Orléans, Beaugency, Neuville, Pithiviers, Montargis, Gien, and Boiscommun) and 59 cantons." This decree was confirmed by that of February 26, where, for the first time, the department with Orléans as its capital was designated under the name "department of Loiret." The royal letters patent, signed by Louis XVI on March 4, 1790, made these various decisions enforceable.
Orléans thus went from being a provincial capital to being the capital of a department, in which the new "Departmental Council" sat, not without some opposition since Montargis had also claimed in December 1789 the status of departmental capital. The division of the department took no account of the former divisions: Beauce was split into three departments, Sologne was also divided between Cher, Loir-et-Cher, and Loiret.
The Constituent Assembly decided that the department would be administered by a "general council" composed of 36 members elected for two years and renewable by half every year. The election took place in two stages: in each cantonal capital, a primary assembly elected electors who in turn elected the general councillors. This system allowed large landowners and representatives of the upper bourgeoisie to be elected. The general council did not sit permanently. It designated, to represent it during the intervals between sessions, a departmental directorate composed of eight paid members who played the role of the department's executive. The directorate sat permanently and dealt with taxes, schools, prisons, agriculture, roads and bridges, and could issue decrees. The council elected each year a president and appointed a secretary general for the sessions of the general council and the permanent meetings of the directorate.
The general council was then essentially an administrative and not a representative body, unlike the former provincial estates, and the Constituent Assembly could dissolve it at any time. Similarly, the king could annul at any time the acts or deliberations he deemed contrary to the laws and orders received.
In Loiret, a report presented by the Attorney General Lemarcis to the general council on November 17, 1791, reviewed the operations carried out by the Departmental Directorate between December 1790 and October 1791. Among the issues he addressed, religious questions held an important place. Deprived of resources after the abolition of tithes (night of August 4, 1789) and the nationalization of its property (November 2, 1789), unsettled by revolutionaries who wanted it to fully adhere to the political and social principles that had emerged in 1789, the Church was in crisis. The transformation of clergymen into state officials through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 12, 1790) and the obligation imposed on them to swear an oath (fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king, and upholding the Constitution) since the decree of December 26, 1790, had in particular sown unrest among the members of the former First Estate. The pope's condemnation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and of the oath (spring 1791) exacerbated tensions, despite attempts at appeasement (the decree of tolerance of May 7, 1791). The attorney was thus very satisfied to note that Loiret had shown, in this respect, its overall adherence to the new regime, and he particularly praised the adherence to the constitutional Church of the bishop of Orléans, . The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was condemned by Pope Pius VI and repealed by the Concordat of 1801.
Convention (1792–1795) The insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a genuine popular movement with a national dimension, but it did not meet with much enthusiasm within the departmental assemblies. This led the Convention to decide, on 19 October 1792, on the renewal of the assemblies, which would henceforth be elected by direct universal suffrage. Every citizen aged twenty-five and residing for one year in the department was both an elector and eligible for election. The directory, instead of being designated by the general council, was itself elected by universal suffrage and by list voting, with up to two rounds. The main duties entrusted to the department were maintaining order, preserving property, guaranteeing individual safety, publishing laws, ensuring the free circulation of grain, collecting contributions, selling national property, and more.
In many departments, the assemblies sided with the Girondins against the Montagnards at the beginning of 1793. The Convention, dominated by the Montagnards, then decided to take several measures to stem the insurrection and passed an organic law on 14 Frimaire, Year II (4 December 1793), which abolished the general councils, the syndic general prosecutors, and the presidents. Only the directories were retained, but with prerogatives limited to public works, the distribution of taxes between districts, and the sale of communal property. However, the Convention kept the administrative division of the cantons, which retained an electoral role by a law of 26 June 1793. After the fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, Year II (27 July 1794), the emergency measures of the Convention were annulled by the Constitution of 22 August 1795 (5 Fructidor, Year III), known as that of the "Bourgeois Republic." This Constitution abolished the districts, administrative bodies tied to the Terror, and reinforced the role of the cantons, which it had just reestablished.
Directory (1795–1799) The Constitution of 5 Fructidor, Year III, applied from Vendémiaire, Year IV (1795), abolished the districts but maintained the cantons, which from then on gained greater importance. The duties of departmental administration included tax collection, requisitions, maintaining public order and tranquility, dealing with draft-dodgers and émigrés, organizing public forces, public works, and more. Nevertheless, the ability recognized to them of issuing wishes meant to express the expectations of their constituents carried within it the role of opinion relay that successive regimes would attribute to provincial notables, even if the assembly and its president remained subordinate to the prefect.
Institutional reforms
Consulate and First Empire (1799–1814) After Bonaparte's seizure of power, the country's administration was modified toward centralization with the (17 February 1800), which divided "the European territory of the Republic into departments and municipal districts" (Art. 1). The departmental administration was completely changed. Bonaparte entrusted administrative authority to a single man, the prefect, appointed by the central government. The prefect was, however, assisted by two councils with limited and specialized powers: the general council and the prefectural council. The prefectural council was above all a tribunal responsible for administrative disputes, its members appointed and dismissed by the head of state. With this reorganization, the number of cantons was greatly reduced. By the decree of 9 Vendémiaire, Year X (1 October 1801), reducing the number of justices of the peace (cantons) in the department of Loiret, applied in accordance with this law, the number of cantons fell from 59 to 31.