Gerardin, Noé <br/><br/>
The Goal of Simplification in the Recent Reforms of Local Government: The Case of the General Responsibility Clause 

 -  2016.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 92 
<br/><br/> Everyone agrees on the complexity of the distribution of competences between French local authorities. However, there is no consensus on how to simplify it. One of the long-considered solutions lies in the suppression of the “general competence clause” for regions and departments: these authorities would therefore only intervene within the competences explicitly defined by the law and granted to them. A law passed on August 7th, 2015 has finally suppressed this general competence clause: the question remains on the limits and the legal and political risks of this suppression that was originally meant to be simplifying.