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When transforming new towns into “ordinary” cities, central government did not pay enough attention to their self-governing ability. “Revisiting” the 1965 regional Master Plan, the author describes how new French towns were grounded on three pillars: economy, culture, and democracy. Focusing on Évry, the paper shows the frailty of efforts made on the economic and cultural fronts due to the weakness of democratic construction, rigidly enclosed in outdated communal institutions. This paper considers ways to overcome the combined failure of establishing a democratic and cultural identity. This is a major challenge for a sustainable democracy.