Prefects in the Mediterranean, Mediterranean prefects? (19th-21st century)
Préfets en Méditerranée, préfets méditerranéens ? (XIXe-XXIe siècle)
Published on Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Abstract
Created in 1802 by Bonaparte, prefects remain a pillar of state-building in contemporary France. The symposium aims to paint a portrait of Mediterranean prefects in the contemporary era (19th-21st centuries), focusing on the following (non-exclusive) questions: What backgrounds do ‘Mediterranean’ administrative elites come from? What determines their success (or failure) in terms of their careers? Is there a culture, practice and professional identity specific to these Mediterranean prefects? How are the links between these prefects and local elites manifested?
Announcement
Argument
The French national construction, as strong and distant as it may seem, has never truly overcome the opposition, or even the contradiction, between the diffusion of a homogeneous model and the permanence of a territory marked by its diversity. Administrative centralisation does not mean political centralisation, let alone cultural uniformity, even if these last two dimensions are closely linked, because the diversity in question often takes on the traits of locally rooted political cultures. There is therefore a paradox in the land of Jacobinism and, since the Revolution, of the “one and indivisible Republic”: the march – sometimes forced, but less than one might think – towards national unity ultimately accommodated the maintenance of particularities, if not local specificities[1]. One of the objectives of this event is to determine whether these find an echo in the actions of the senior officials of the Ministry of the Interior, who are the prefects. If their action in the national standardisation process, a vector of homogeneity, is undeniable, it has nevertheless not erased local identities, even though the latter could not exist, most of the time, exclusively[2]. The time is long gone when the analysis of a local or regional space, through the lens of politics, was considered a provocation or a historiographical heresy. It is therefore a portrait of Mediterranean prefects in contemporary times that we aim to depict during this event, in a history of administration that plans to take into account local identities, cultures, sensitivities, representations, and political practices at work in these Mediterranean territories.
By “Mediterranean prefects”, we mean the high-ranking officials stationed in Mediterranean France, that is, before 1962, sixteen departments and thirteen after Algeria's independence, in an area extending from the Hérault coastline to the Franco-Italian border and from the Southern Alps to the North African shores. This concerns the three departments of Algeria (Algiers, Oran, Constantine), the six departments forming the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, now the Southern Region (Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Vaucluse, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes), the two departments that make up the Corsican region (Southern Corsica and Upper Corsica), and the five departments grouped in the region, before the 2016 merger, Languedoc-Roussillon (Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard, and Lozère).
This geographical framework will serve as our testing ground for the research traditions highlighted by Gildas Tanguy in an enlightening historiographical article in 2015[3]. The first of these traditions describes the French prefect as a representative of the State. The works then focus on observing the prefectural institution in its relations with the central power, favouring a “top-down” approach[4]. This approach involves analysing the institution through the filter of the political regime or the institutional context in which it operates. The second research tradition observes the institution in its immediate political-institutional environment: the prefect is here repositioned within a “local political-administrative system”, a form of configuration in which he “appears as one of the essential pivots of the departmental notability network” or, to put it differently, as the figurehead of “the informal structure of departmental government”[5]. The works that fall within this perspective have a common point: they emphasise the functional dimension of the prefectural figure[6]. More recent surveys – conducted by historians and socio-historians in particular – have renewed these classical approaches by laying the foundations for an ethnology and anthropology of prefectural administrative practices, thus portraying departmental administrators in their daily and routine practice of the profession[7]. This conference aims to revisit and explore the fruitful paths initiated by all these traditions in order to address, through very diverse entry points, Next question: what does it mean to administer a Mediterranean department? Are there specificities in the exercise of the prefect's profession in these departments, both in the tasks to be accomplished – for example, the fight against recurrent and dramatic forest fires – and in the physiognomy of the political-institutional environment in which these high-ranking officials must operate. As dramatic and exceptional as it may be, the assassination of Prefect Claude Érignac in Corsica in 1998 is an example of the highly complex situation facing the island's administration in dealing with nationalist movements. Other forms of violence may exist elsewhere, for example in southern Italy and Sicily, where the mafia is active[8].
Far from seeking to exclusively define an “ideal type” of the Mediterranean prefect, the conference's work will be open to precise case studies, dependent on the state of the sources, knowledge, and questions. The reflections undertaken will be within the framework of a geo-cultural space that transcends national borders. The numerous back-and-forths and comparisons with Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean prove it: local and regional history does not mean localist history, let alone regionalist history. The multiscalar approach will be particularly welcome, with reflections that can be organised around the following (non-exclusive) questions: from what backgrounds do the “Mediterranean” administrative elites come? On what does the success (or lack thereof) in terms of career of these prefects depend? Is there a culture, a practice, and a professional identity specific to these Mediterranean prefects? Is it a specificity or a true particularism? How do the relationships between these prefects and the local elites translate? In total, to what extent can a prefect (or sub-prefect) stationed in the Mediterranean be described as, become, or be considered a “Mediterranean prefect”? The proposed axes, which are not exhaustive, are as follows :
Focus Area 1 - Prosopographical approach to prefects in the Mediterranean: origins and training
This axis will prioritise a prosopographical approach to the prefects stationed in the Mediterranean, taking into account their exercise of local and national political mandates. In his work, Pierre Allorant, for example, showed that in the 19th century, Mediterranean parliamentarians, before or after their national mandate, spent part of their careers within the prefectural administration[9]. The existence of mixed careers between territorial administration and national parliamentary mandates is partly based on the idea that local influence and political anchoring only strengthen the service of the State. The censitary parliamentary monarchies, moreover, are far from breaking with this questionable practice of parliamentarian officials, which even becomes a real issue under the July Monarchy.
Some Mediterranean regions hold a prominent place within the prefectural corps. Under the Second Empire, Corsica and Corsicans were thus showered with favour: Ajaccio became a first-class prefecture, which allowed it to count great prefects such as the jurist Thuillier, who died in office as director of the departmental and communal administration, and many islanders entered this administrative body, such as Denis Gavini in Nice[10] or Costa de Bastelica in the Vaucluse and Hérault. Corsica then took the lead among the departments providing prefectural officials, ahead of Algeria and the Gard. A few portraits of "great Mediterranean prefectural figures" can be offered, without obviously claiming to be exhaustive but by presenting only the careers of a few prefects who have marked the region's history through their administrative action[11]. The focus could be on civil servants from Mediterranean regions (or those with family, cultural, or “identity” ties to these southern regions) who have been stationed in Mediterranean departments, even though the historian must naturally remain cautious about the necessarily flexible and shifting definitions of identity.
Focus Area 2 - The prefects stationed in the Mediterranean : a specific praxis?
The colloquium aims here to examine the issues of administrative work and the social practices of this body of high-ranking officials. These have been the subject of an in-depth analysis by Bernard Le Clère and Vincent Wright, who, in their book Les préfets du Second Empire, focused their attention on the intimate and daily life of departmental administrators (typical days, audiences, correspondence, travel, protocol, receptions, family life...)[12]. Let us also mention, in these early attempts to re-examine the institution, Pierre Birnbaum's important work on State Jews[13]. His analyses on the “dynasty” of the Hendlé prefects precisely describe how the values that drive them (relationship to the State and the Republic) translate into their administrative practices (secularism, application of school laws...). More recently, the work of Pierre Karila-Cohen has enriched our understanding of the social practices of the body in the 19th century[14]. Here, questions related to Mediterranean identity – supposed or real – could be addressed, even though the researcher must obviously be cautious since identity is primarily emotional and difficult to measure. Mediterranean identity cannot, naturally, be reified, and it will primarily be sought here at a human level. In this perspective, the objective of the event will therefore be to question the specificity of the French Mediterranean in prefectoral practice. This has often been the subject of stereotypical discourse in the writings of administrators. The weight of representations – which has not disappeared today – on southern France is a reality of contemporary political, literary, and media discourses whose roots can easily be traced back to the 19th century, or even earlier. Barrès, the Lorrainer, for whom the “real” French were those from the North and East, as opposed to the South, or Jaurès, who wrote: “On the French political construction, the Loire appears as a deep fissure”. Then, Prosper Mérimée, general inspector of historical monuments, reported: “On arriving in Avignon, it seemed to me that I had just left France[15]”. Some members of the prefectural corps, like the sentiment expressed by certain political, intellectual, and cultural elites of the time, were sceptical about the ability of southern populations - and more broadly provincial ones - to develop a civic sense[16]. Here, for example, is what a prefect sent to Paris said about the Var department in the mid-19th century :
“The population is poorly educated; it generally lacks elevation in ideas and feelings. The spirit of the inhabitants is shady and vindictive. The cliques and local hostilities are numerous. We live at home and only associate to harm our enemy. This enemy, we don't kill him, like in Corsica, but we denounce him, we ruin him by any means. There is Italian and Arab influence in the character of the inhabitants of this part of Provence, where several races have mixed and where war has been the normal state of the country for longer than elsewhere[17]”.
Southern France has thus also been built in relation to this otherness, although the strictly political and administrative relations it maintains with the State cannot be reduced to relationships of domination. This space seems to appear as an electoral land with various temptations, almost naturally deviating from the laws of the Republic, and which would support the idea that only scandals and affairs characterise southern political life, where Tartarin would be king. The Mediterranean lands and their local particularities seem far from the central power and almost on the margins of the major national political developments that affect society as a whole. Through very diverse entry points (prospective knowledge about the election, observation and monitoring of public opinion[18], learning the profession, in situ application of the law, handling of strikes, etc.), the challenge here will be to determine whether the actions of the prefects allow us to observe discrepancies between reality and representations – excessive as in the judgements of Barrès or Mérimée cited above – at the foundation of true political myths. What, moreover, are the multiple issues against which Mediterranean prefectural practice is measured? We will be able to address here the issues related to social evolutions and transformations, such as those of major social conflicts or migrations, reinforced by the role of repatriates from Algeria. Do these upheavals hold a specific place in the system of actions and political representations of these southern prefects? On the other hand, do the other changes that affect French society after 1945 (and to what extent?) affect the prefectural body working in the Mediterranean departments? From this perspective, the symposium can address the issue of the feminisation of the prefectural body after 1945, in order to determine to what extent this concerns Mediterranean prefects.
On a diachronic level, the analysis of practices will then allow us to question the impact of decentralisation undertaken in the early 1980s, with studies on the institution becoming “scarce” from that period onwards. Unlike studies on the “local dimension of politics[19]” and surveys on “local government” that then flourished, the prefectural administration of Mediterranean prefectures found itself to be the poor relative of scientific literature. Apart from the personal accounts of former protagonists of the corps, only a few writings[20] have attempted to (re)evaluate the role of the “prefect in decentralisation[21]” by drawing heavily on the systemic paradigm during the 1960s-1970s. The colloquium will therefore also aim to shed light on the effects of decentralisation[22] - through which the State transfers certain powers and corresponding resources to local authorities - on Mediterranean prefects whose role has been profoundly transformed by a process still ongoing at the beginning of the 2020s[23].
Also, we will encourage comparative perspectives with other departments and territories of the national and Mediterranean space[24]. Indeed, this space is never considered in isolation and detached from its immediate or distant neighbourhoods. How indeed can one claim to discern the specificity of the actions of Mediterranean prefects without comparison? So many questions that are part of the long timeline of contemporary history and give full consideration to an analysis that systematically prioritises a plural spatio-temporal dimension. A focus can be placed on the body of law graduates from southern faculties, with a reflection on the specificity or non-specificity of Mediterranean identities and cultures in the training of these prefects, starting from a questioning that covers all the major areas of investigation in administrative, social, and political history.
Focus Area 3 - Evolutions and spread of the prefectural model in the Mediterranean
As various recent studies have shown[25], the prefect is far from being an exclusively French figure. Several Mediterranean countries have had them for varying lengths of time. This axis will therefore address the prefectural function in the Mediterranean from a dynamic perspective by focussing on the diffusion of the “prefectural model” in Mediterranean regions and, beyond that, in regions of Mediterranean Europe and North Africa that have been influenced by France. More than a Napoleonic “model” of the prefect that would have been uniformly exported to Europe and the world – a mythical narrative that does not correspond to historical truth[26] – , the Napoleonic imprint was nevertheless strong at the beginning and in the first half of the 19th century. The provincial division, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, was made official in Spain by the royal decree of November 30, 1833. Regarding Italy, the administrative reorganisation into provinces inherited from the Napoleonic departmental model was confirmed in 1818, then during the construction of Italian unity (in 1848 and 1859) in order to standardise the territory of the Kingdom of Sardinia and improve its administration. The conference will welcome with interest communications on Italy, a country with a strong prefectural tradition where many signs of the institution's solemnity can be observed, and which could follow in the line of particularly fruitful works conducted on the Italian prefectural body in the 19th and 20th centuries (notably the studies by Marco de Nicolò[27] or Alberto Cifelli[28]), illustrated by the holding in 2018 of an international conference organised by Alessandro Breccia and Giovanni Focardi on the theme of prefects between 1968 and 1973[29]. In this perspective, comparative research highlighting the specificities of prefects in Mediterranean Europe would be particularly relevant here in light of the issues raised by this axis. Thus, in Spain, a country where the figure of the territorial representative is particularly well-established and illustrated by the delegados del Gobierno[30], prefectural functions are not or only slightly rooted in the logic of the profession and/or occupation and are more closely related to a mission-based logic.
On a larger scale, the prefect also proves to be an essential administrative and political actor in the territorial expansion in the Mediterranean during the colonial era, as partly shown by Majid Embarech's work in his thesis dedicated to the prefects of Algiers, from the 1930s to Algeria's independence[31]. While the French presence in North Africa began with the conquest of the Ottoman regency of Algiers in 1830, the annexation of the new territories materialised in 1848 with the creation of three new French departments: those of Algiers, Constantine, and Oran. The study of Algerian prefects would therefore fully fit into the reflections of this colloquium, by questioning the existence of a "Mediterranean colonial model" applicable or not to the prefects stationed in Algeria. Still within this Euro-Mediterranean dimension, the colloquium could give rise to communications that analyse the function of wali in Algeria and Morocco or that of governor in Tunisia, the study of state representatives in the Maghreb states currently undergoing a complete renewal as shown by Nadia Alaoui's work in her recent thesis[32], or that of Antoine Perrier[33], who analysed how the Moroccan and Tunisian monarchies were recomposed in the face of colonial domination seeking to impose a “French administrative model”, with the Moroccan makhzen and the Tunisian beylik maintaining autonomous public services within them without which the two countries were ungovernable. It will also be a matter here, particularly from a postcolonial perspective, to determine the legacies of the French prefectural model on Algerian, Moroccan, or Tunisian walis and governors, and we will also be able to examine the similarities and differences between North African and French senior officials.
This broadening of scale should finally allow us to examine the specific challenges of exercising the function and profession in the Mediterranean, in France, and in the other states bordering this sea: do Spanish, French, Italian, and Maghrebi prefects, for example, develop similar strategies against forest fires, mafias, or in their management of migration issues?
Contribution guidelines
Proposals for presentations (20 minutes) of no more than 3,000 characters, accompanied by a short bio-bibliographical note, should be sent before 30 January 2026 to the following addresses: pierre.allorant@gmail.com, majid.embarech@univ-cotedazur.fr. Presentations may be in French or English.
Organising committee
Pierre Allorant (Pothier Legal Research Centre, University of Orléans), Majid Embarech, Jérémy Guedj, Jean-Paul Pellegrinetti (CMMC, Université Côte d’Azur)
Scientific Committee
Claire Marynower (IEP Grenoble), Gildas Tanguy (IEP Toulouse), Marc Ortolani (Université Côte d’Azur), Aurélien Lignereux (IEP Grenoble), Igor Moullier (ENS Lyon), Tiphaine Le Yoncourt (Rennes I), Pierre Karila-Cohen (Rennes II), Pierre Allorant (Centre de recherche juridique Pothier, Université d’Orléans), Majid Embarech, Jérémy Guedj, Jean-Paul Pellegrinetti (CMMC, Université Côte d’Azur), Anne-Laure Ollivier (POLEN, université d’Orléans)
Bibliography
Agulhon, Maurice, La vie sociale en Provence intérieure au lendemain de la Révolution, Paris, Société des études robespierristes, 1970.
Alaoui, Nadia, Gouverner l’incertitude : les walis de Casablanca, 2001-2015, thèse de doctorat en Science politique sous la direction de Mohammed Tozy et Béatrice Hibou, Université d’Aix Marseille, 2019.
Allorant, Pierre, Le corps préfectoral et les municipalités dans les départements de la Loire moyenne au XIXe siècle (1800-1914), Orléans, Presses Universitaires d’Orléans, 2007.
Allorant, Pierre, Garrigues Jean et Guedj Jérémy (dir.), « Les parlementaires méditerranéens. France, Espagne, Italie, XIXe-XXe siècles », Cahiers de la Méditerranée, n° 96, juin 2018.
Amalvi, Christian, Lafon Alexandre et Piot Céline (dir.), Le Midi, les Midis dans la IIIe République (1870-1940), Narrosse, Éditions d’Albret, 2012.
Antonielli, Livio, « Le choix des préfets dans la République italienne et le Royaume d’Italie », Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 4, 1977, p. 548-567.
Antonielli, Livio, I prefetti dell’italia napoleonica, Bologne, Il Mulino, 1983.
Aubert, Jacques et alii, Les préfets en France (1800-1940), Genève, Droz, 1978.
Baruch, Marc Olivier, Servir l’État français. L’administration en France de 1940 à 1944, Paris, Fayard, 1997.
Bezes, Philippe, Réinventer l’État. Les réformes de l’administration française (1962-2008), Paris, PUF, 2009.
Biard, Michel, Les lilliputiens de la centralisation. Des intendants aux préfets : les hésitations d’un « modèle français », Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2007.
Biland, Émilie, « Les cultures d’institution », in Jacques Lagroye & Michel Offerlé (dir.), Sociologie de l’institution, Paris, Belin, p. 177-192, 2010.
Birnbaum, Pierre, Les fous de la République. Histoire politique des juifs d’État de Gambetta à Vichy, Paris, Fayard, 1992.
Bourguinat, Nicolas, « Le Midi comme énigme historique » (dir.), in L’invention des Midis. Représentations de l’Europe du Sud (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), Strasbourg, Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2015.
Bras, Hélène, L’évolution de la fonction préfectorale depuis 1982, Thèse de doctorat de droit public, Université de Montpellier I, 1996.
Cassese, Sabino (), « Il prefetto nella storia administrativa », Rivista trimestriale di diritto publico, n° 33, 1983, p. 1449-1457.
Cassese, Sabino, « Le préfet en Italie », Revue française d’administration publique, n° 96, 1996, p. 589-598.
Chapman, Brian, The Prefect and Provincial France, Londres, Allen and Uwin, 1955.
Charbonnier, Jacques, Un grand préfet du Second Empire, Denis Gavini, Bernard Giovanangeli éditeur, 1995.
Chauvin, Francis, « La nouvelle administration régionale de l’État », AJDA (15), 2010, p. 825-830.
Cifelli, Alberto, I prefetti della Repubblica (1946 – 1956), Rome, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1990 ; L’istituto prefettizio dalla caduta del fascismo all’Assemblea costituente, Rome, Scuola superiore dell’Amministrazione dell’interno, 2008
Cobban, Alfred, « Administrative Pressure in the Election of the French Constituent Assembly, April 1848 », Bulletin of Historical Research, 1974, p. 328-338.
Cole, Alistair et Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-Michel, « Introduction : Administrative reforms and mergers in Europe - research questions and empirical challenges », International Review of Administrative Sciences (IRAS/RISA), 76 (3), 2010, p. 395-406.
Contet, Pierre (2000), Les préfets de la Ve République. Le recrutement social et politique d’un corps de l’État, 1958-1995, Thèse de doctorat de science politique, Université de Montpellier 1.
De Nicolò, Marco, La prefettura di Roma (1871-1946), Bologne, Il mulino, 1998 ; Marco de Nicolò, Tra Stato e società civile. Ministero dell’interno, Prefetture, autonomie locali, Bologne, Il Mulino, 2006 ; « L’epurazione interna : l’istituto prefettizio », in Marco de Nicolò et Enzo Fimiani (dir.), Dal fascismo alla Repubblica : quanta continuità ? Numeri, questioni, biografie, Rome, Viella, 2019, p. 21-45.
Dreyfus, Françoise, L’invention la bureaucratie : servir l’État en France, en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis, XVIIIe – XXe siècle, Paris, La Découverte, 2000.
Dupuis, François et Thoenig, Jean-Claude, L’administration en miettes, Paris, Fayard, 1985.
Ebel, Édouard, Les préfets et le maintien de l’ordre public en France au XIXe siècle, Paris, La Documentation française1999.
Edenz, Maurice, Préfets et préfètes aux outre-mer depuis 1974, Paris, La documentation française, 2023.
Majid Embarech, Mettre en scène l’Algérie coloniale. Les préfets d’Alger et le protocole (1936-1961), Rennes, PUR, à paraître en 2026.
Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-Michel, Les Gardiens de l’Etat. Une sociologie des énarques de ministère, Thèse de doctorat de science politique, Université Paris 1, 1999.
Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-Michel, La fabrique des énarques, Paris, Economica, 2001.
Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-Michel, « La fonction publique aux prises avec une double européanisation », Pouvoirs, n° 117, Serviteurs de l’Etat, 2006, p. 121-135.
Eymeri-Douzans, Jean-Michel (2008), « Les réformes administratives en Europe : Logiques managérialistes globales, acclimatations locales », Pyramides, n° 15, p. 71-93.
García De Enterría, Eduardo, « Prefectos y Gobernadores civiles. El problema de la Administración periférica en España », in Eduardo García De Enterría (dir.), La Administración española, Madrid, Bolsillo, 1985, p. 73-88
Giddens, Anthony, La constitution de la société, Paris, PUF, 1987.
Gleizal, Jean-Jacques (dir.), Le retour des préfets ?, Grenoble, PUG, 1995.
Grémion, Pierre, Le pouvoir périphérique. Bureaucrates et notables dans le système politique français, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1976.
Grenouilleau, Olivier, Nos petites patries. Identités régionales et État central, en France, des origines à nos jours, Paris, Gallimard, 2019.
Guedj, Jérémy et Pellegrinetti, Jean-Paul (dir.), Pour une histoire politique de la France méditerranéenne, Rennes, PUR, 2021.
Guillon, Jean-Marie, « Les sénateurs des départements provençaux au XXe siècle (1919-1986). Un concentré des caractéristiques de la “classe politique” régionale ? », Cahiers de la Méditerranée, n° 96, juin 2018, p. 33-48.
Hooghe, Liesbet, Cohesion Policy and European Integration : Building Multi-Level Governance, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.
Jèze, Gaston (), « Du rôle des préfets en France. Note de jurisprudence à propos de l’affaire des époux Delpech », Revue du droit public et de la science politique, avril-juin 1911, p. 272-284.
Karila-Cohen, Pierre, « Le rapport administratif : du support à l’objet », in Hincker, Louis (dir.), Réflexions sur les sources écrites de la « biographie politique ». Le cas du XIXe siècle, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 2000, p. 15-20.
Karila-Cohen, Pierre, « L’État des esprits ». L’administration et l’observation de l’opinion départementale en France sous la monarchie constitutionnelle (1814-1848), Thèse de doctorat d’histoire, Université Paris 1, 2003.
Karila-Cohen, Pierre , L’État des esprits. L’invention de l’enquête politique en France (1814-1848), Rennes, PUR, 2008.
Karila-Cohen, Pierre, Monsieur le préfet : incarner l’Etat dans la France du XIXe siècle, Paris, Champ Vallon, 2021
Kerrouche, Éric, Corps préfectoral et représentations de l’État, Thèse de doctorat en science politique, IEP de Bordeaux, 1997
Kerrouche, Éric, « L’apprentissage du rôle de sous-préfet », Politix, vol. 10, n° 38, 1997, pp. 88-110.
Laurens, Sylvain, Une politisation feutrée. Les hauts fonctionnaires et l’immigration en France, Paris, Belin, 2009.
Le Clère, Bernard et Wright, Vincent, Les préfets du Second Empire, Paris, Armand Colin, 1973.
Le Lidec, Patrick, « L’impossible renouveau du modèle préfectoral sous la Quatrième République », Revue française d’administration publique, n°120, 4, 2006, p. 695-710.
Le Roy Ladurie Emmanuel, Histoire de France des régions. La périphérie française, des origines à nos jours, Paris, Le Seuil, 2001.
Le Yoncourt, Tiphaine, Le préfet et ses notables en Ille-et-Vilaine au XIXe siècle (1814-1914), Paris, LGDJ, 2001.
Liens, Georges, « Le stéréotype du Méridional vu par les Français du Nord de 1815 à 1914 », Provence historique, tome XXVII, oct.-déc. 1977, p. 413-431.
Lignereux, Aurélien, Les impériaux. Administrer et habiter l’Europe de Napoléon, Paris, Fayard, 2019.
Linz, Juan et Stepan, Alfred (1996), Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Machelon, Jean-Pierre, « The Prefect, Political Functionary of the Jacobin State : Permanences et Continuities (1870-1914) », in Hazareesingh Sudhir, (dir.), The Jacobin Legacy in Modern France, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 68-88.
Manson, Stéphane, « De l’an VIII à l’an 2000 : le préfet est-il encore un “fonctionnaire politique” ? », Revue du droit public et de la science politique, 1, 2001 p. 201-219.
Marcou, Gérard, « Le représentant territorial de l’État et le fait régional dans les États européens », Revue française d’administration publique, (3), n° 135, 2010, p. 567-582.
Martin, Luis P., Pellegrinetti, Jean-Paul et Guedj, Jérémy (dir.), La République en Méditerranée. Diffusions, espaces et cultures en France, Italie et Espagne (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), Paris, L’Harmattan, 2012.
Martischang, François-Xavier, L’autorité de l’État. Les préfets, les sous-préfets, les maires et la population en Lorraine au XIXe siècle, PUR, 2025.
Michel, Valérie, « Décentralisation européenne et déconcentration nationale : les modalités d’européanisation des services territoriaux de l’État », Revue française d’administration publique, 2, n° 114, 2005, p. 219-228.
Moreau, Jacques et Verpeaux, Michel (dir.), Révolution et décentralisation. Le système administratif français et les principes révolutionnaires de 1789, Paris, Economica, 1992.
Mosser, Michel, L’euro-préfet. Essai sur une Europe de proximité, Paris, Vrin, 2000.
Négrier, Emmanuel, « Échanges politiques territorialisés et action publique européenne : le Languedoc-Roussillon », in Négrier, Emmanuel et Jouve, Bernard (dir.), Que gouvernent les régions d’Europe ? Échanges politiques et mobilisations sub-nationales, Paris, L’Harmattan, p. 85-103.
Nordman, Daniel et Ozouf-Marignier, Marie-Vic (dir.), Atlas de la Révolution française, Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, 1989.
Ozouf-Marignier, Marie-Vic, La formation des départements. La représentation du territoire français à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, 2e éd., Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, 1992 (1989).
Pasquier, Romain, La capacité politique des régions. Une comparaison France/Espagne, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2004.
Pasquier, Romain, « The Europeanisation of French regions », French Politics, 7 (2), 2009, p. 123-144.
Pellegrinetti, Jean-Paul, La Corse et la République. La vie politique de 1870 à 1914, thèse d’histoire sous la direction de Ralph Schor, université de Nice, 4 vol.
Perrier, Antoine, Monarchies du Maghreb : L'État au Maroc et en Tunisie sous protectorat (1881-1956), Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, 2023.
Ponce Alberca, Julio, « Los delegados del Gobierno en España (1997-2018). Perfiles y actuación de una figura de confianza política ». Historia y Política », 44, 2020, p. 403-437.
Rahmouni Benhida, Bouchra et Slaoui, Younes, Géopolitique de la Méditerranée, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2013.
Richardson, Nicholas, The French Prefectoral Corps, 1814-1830, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1966.
Rosanvallon, Pierre, Le modèle politique français. La société civile contre le jacobinisme de 1789 à nos jours, Paris, Le Seuil, 2004.
Rouban, Luc, « Les préfets entre 1947 et 1958 ou les limites de la République administrative », Revue française d’administration publique, n° 108, 4, 2004, p. 551-564
Spire, Alexis, Étrangers à la carte. L’administration de l’immigration en France (1945-1975), Paris, Grasset, 2005.
Spitzer, Alan B., « The Bureaucrat as Proconsul : The Restoration Prefect and the Police Generale », Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 7, 4, 1965, p. 371-392.
Siwek-Pouydesseau, Jeanne, Le corps préfectoral sous la Troisième et la Quatrième République, Paris, Armand Colin, 1969.
Tanguy, Gildas, « Archives, objet de contraintes ? Des rapports difficiles et parfois conflictuels du politiste avec ses sources. Pour une sociologie historique de l’institution préfectorale (1880-1940) », in Offerlé, Michel & Rousso, Henry (dir.), La fabrique interdisciplinaire. Histoire et science politique, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2008, p. 229-239.
Tanguy, Gildas, « Corps et âme de l’État », Socio-histoire de l’institution préfectorale (1880-1940), Thèse de doctorat de science politique, Université Paris 1, 2009.
Tanguy, Gildas, « Les préfets face à la grève : faire savoir, savoir-faire et “expertise de gouvernement” », in Laborier, Pascale, Audren, Frédéric, Napoli, Paolo, Vogel, Jakob (dir.), Les sciences camérales : activités pratiques et histoire des dispositifs publics, Paris, PUF, 2011, p. 268-295.
Thoral, Marie-Cécile (2010), L’émergence du pouvoir local. Le département de l’Isère face à la centralisation (1800-1837), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010.
Thuillier, Guy, « Comment faire l’histoire du corps préfectoral », in Pour une histoire de la bureaucratie en France, Paris, Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, 1999, p. 461-469.
Im Tobin, Le préfet dans la décentralisation, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997.
Olivier Tort, « L’image du Midi sous la Restauration. Variations autour du tempérament méridional », Annales du Midi, t. 124, n° 280, octobre-décembre 2012, p. 437
Whitcomb, Edward, « Napoleon’s Prefects », The American Historical Review, vol. 79, n° 4, 1974 p. 1089-1118.
Worms, Jean-Pierre, « Le préfet et ses notables », Sociologie du travail, n° 8, (3), juillet-septembre, 1966, p. 249-275.
Notes
[1] Pierre Rosanvallon, Le modèle politique français. La société civile contre le jacobinisme de 1789 à nos jours, Paris, Le Seuil, 2004, p. 375, which emphasises this contradiction and its deep foundations. See also Olivier Grenouilleau, Nos petites patries. Identités régionales et État central, en France, des origines à nos jours, Paris, Gallimard, 2019.
[2] Jacques Julliard, préface à Le Roy Ladurie Emmanuel, Histoire de France des régions. La périphérie française, des origines à nos jours, Paris, Le Seuil, 2001, p. 8.
[3] Gildas Tanguy, « Le préfet dans tous ses états ». Une histoire de l’institution préfectorale est-elle (encore) possible ?, histoire@politique, n°27, 2015, p. 124-145.
[4] Alfred Cobban, « Local Government during the French Revolution », The English Historical Review, Vol. 58, N°. 229 , janvier 1943, p. 13-31 ; Brian Chapman, The Prefects and Provincial France, Londres, Allen and Unwin, 1955 ; Nicholas Richardson, The French Prefectoral Corps, 1814-1830, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1966 ; Jeanne Siwek-Pouydesseau, Le corps préfectoral sous la Troisième et la Quatrième République, Paris, Armand Colin, 1969 ; Edouard Ebel, Les préfets et le maintien de l'ordre public en France, au XIXe siècle, Paris, IHESI, 1999 ; Jean-Pierre Machelon, « The Prefect, Political Functionary of the Jacobin State : Permanences et Continuities (1870-1914) », in Hazareesingh Sudhir, (dir.), The Jacobin Legacy in Modern France, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 68-88 ; Guy Thuillier, « Comment faire l’histoire du corps préfectoral », in Pour une histoire de la bureaucratie en France, Paris, Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, 1999, p. 461-469.
[5] Pierre Grémion, Le pouvoir périphérique. Bureaucrates et notables dans le système politique français, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1976.
[6] Michel Crozier et Jean-Claude Thoenig, « La régulation des systèmes organisés complexes. Le cas du système de décision politico-administratif local en France », Revue française de sociologie, vol. 16, n° 1, 1975, p. 3-32 ; François Dupuis et Jean-Claude Thoenig, L’administration en miettes, Paris, Fayard, 1985 ; Im Tobin, Le préfet dans la décentralisation, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997 ; Tiphaine Le Yoncourt, Le préfet et ses notables en Ille-et-Vilaine au XIXe siècle (1814-1914), Paris, LGDJ, 2001 ; Pierre Allorant, (2007), Le corps préfectoral et les municipalités dans les départements de la Loire moyenne au XIXe siècle (1800-1914), Orléans, Presses Universitaires d’Orléans.
[7] Marc-Olivier Baruch, Servir l’État français. L’administration en France de 1940 à 1944, Paris, Fayard 1997 ; Éric Kerrouche, Corps préfectoral et représentations de l’État, Thèse de doctorat en science politique, IEP de Bordeaux 1997 ; Marie-Cécile Thoral, L’émergence du pouvoir local. Le département de l’Isère face à la centralisation (1800-1837), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010 ; Gildas Tanguy, « Les préfets face à la grève : faire savoir, savoir-faire et “expertise de gouvernement” », in Pascale Laborier, Frédéric Audren, Paolo Napoli, Jakob Vogel, (dir.), Les sciences camérales : activités pratiques et histoire des dispositifs publics, Paris, PUF, 2011, p. 268-295 Pierre Karila-Cohen, Monsieur le préfet : incarner l’Etat dans la France du XIXe siècle, Paris, Champ Vallon, 2021 ; Edenz Maurice, Préfets et préfètes aux outre-mer depuis 1974, Paris, La documentation française, 2023 ; François-Xavier Martischang, L’autorité de l’État. Les préfets, les sous-préfets, les maires et la population en Lorraine au XIXe siècle, PUR, 2025
[8] Paolo Pezzino, « Mafia, violence et pouvoir politique en Italie (XIXe-XXe siècles) », in Michel Bertrand et al. (ed.), Violences et pouvoirs politiques, Toulouse, Presses universitaires du Midi, 1996, p. 175-192.
[9] Pierre Allorant, Jean Garrigues et Jérémy Guedj (dir.), « Les parlementaires méditerranéens. France, Espagne, Italie, XIXe-XXe siècles », Cahiers de la Méditerranée, n° 96, juin 2018.
[10] Jacques Charbonnier, Un grand préfet du Second Empire, Denis Gavini, Bernard Giovanangeli éditeur, 1995.
[11] Christian Amalvi, Alexandre Lafon et Céline Piot (dir.), Le Midi, les Midis dans la IIIe République (1870-1940), Narrosse, Éditions d’Albret, 2012.
[12] Bernard Le Clère et Vincent Wright, Les préfets du Second Empire, Paris, Armand Colin, 1973 ; Bernard Le Clère, « La vie quotidienne des préfets au XIXe siècle (1815-1914) », in Les préfets en France, op. cit., p. 37-144.
[13] Pierre Birnbaum, Les fous de la République. Histoire politique des juifs d’État de Gambetta à Vichy, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, coll. « Points », 1994 ; Yves Déloye, École et citoyenneté. L’individualisme républicain de Jules Ferry à Vichy : controverses, Paris, Presses de la FNSP, 1994.
[14] Pierre Karila-Cohen, Monsieur le préfet, op.cit.
[15] Prosper Mérimée, Notes d’un voyage dans le midi de la France, Paris, Fournier, 1835, p. 38.
[16] Olivier Tort, « L’image du Midi sous la Restauration. Variations autour du tempérament méridional », Annales du Midi, t. 124, n° 280, octobre-décembre 2012, p. 437.
[17] Rapport du préfet du Var, 7 juillet 1856, quoted in Bernard Le Clère et Vincent Wright, Les préfets du second Empire, op. cit., p. 132.
[18] François-Xavier Martischang, op. cit.
[19] To use an expression of Jacques Lagroye, « De l’objet local à l’horizon local des pratiques », in Albert Mabileau (dir.), À la recherche du local, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1993, p. 132-166.
[20] With the exception, of course, of a substantial body of legal literature.
[21] Im Tobin, Le préfet dans la décentralisation, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1997 and Jean-Jacques Gleizal (dir.), Le retour des préfets ?, Grenoble, PUG, 1995.
[22] Albert Mabileau, Le système local en France, Paris, Montchrestien, 1994, p. 97-98.
[23] Jean-Pierre Dubois, « Décentralisation, idée révolutionnaire ? », in Jacques Moreau and Michel Verpeaux (dir.), Révolution et décentralisation. Le système administratif français et les principes révolutionnaires de 1789, Paris, Economica, 1992.
[24] Jean El Gammal, « Les élites politiques en Lorraine de 1815 à nos jours », in Guedj Jérémy, Pellegrinetti Jean-Paul (dir.), Pour une histoire politique de la France méditerranéenne, Rennes, PUR, 2021.
[25] Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans et Gildas Tanguy, Prefects, governors and commissioners : territorial representatives of the state in Europe, Londres, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 ; Pierre Karila-Cohen, Monsieur le préfet, op.cit.
[26] Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans et Gildas Tanguy, « Les préfets, une exception française ? », La Vie des idées, 26 avril 2022. URL : https://laviedesidees.fr/Les-prefets-une-exception-francaise
[27] Marco de Nicolò, La prefettura di Roma (1871-1946), Bologne, Il mulino, 1998 ; Marco de Nicolò, Tra Stato e società civile. Ministero dell’interno, Prefetture, autonomie locali, Bologne, Il Mulino, 2006 ; Marco de Nicolò, « L’epurazione interna : l’istituto prefettizio », in Marco de Nicolò et Enzo Fimiani (dir.), Dal fascismo alla Repubblica : quanta continuità ? Numeri, questioni, biografie, Rome, Viella, 2019, p. 21-45.
[28] Alberto Cifelli, I prefetti della Repubblica (1946 – 1956), Rome, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1990 ; Alberto Cifelli, L’istituto prefettizio dalla caduta del fascismo all’Assemblea costituente, Rome, Scuola superiore dell’Amministrazione dell’interno, 2008
[29] Alessandro Breccia et Giovanni Focardi, I prefetti nel « lungo Sessantotto » (1968-1973), international colloquium, 29 novembre 2018, Domus Mazziniana, Pise
[30] Eduardo García De Enterría, « Prefectos y Gobernadores civiles. El problema de la Administración periférica en España », in Eduardo García De Enterría (dir.), La Administración española, Madrid, Bolsillo, 1985, p. 73-88 ; Julio Ponce Alberca, « Los delegados del Gobierno en España (1997-2018). Perfiles y actuación de una figura de confianza política ». Historia y Política », 44, 2020, p. 403-437.
[31] Majid Embarech, Staging Colonial Algeria. The prefects of Algiers and the protocol (1936-1961), Rennes, PUR, to be published in 2026.
[32] Nadia Alaoui, Governing Uncertainty : The Walis of Casablanca, 2001-2015, PhD thesis in Political Science under the supervision of Mohammed Tozy and Béatrice Hibou, University of Aix-Marseille, 2019.
[33] Antoine Perrier, Monarchies du Maghreb : L'État au Maroc et en Tunisie sous protectorat (1881-1956), Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, 2023
Subjects
- Political studies (Main category)
Places
- Nice, France (06)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Friday, January 30, 2026
Keywords
- préfet, Méditerranée, administration, élite
Contact(s)
- Pierre Allorant
courriel : pierre [dot] allorant [at] gmail [dot] com
Information source
- Majid Embarech
courriel : majid [dot] embarech [at] univ-cotedazur [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Prefects in the Mediterranean, Mediterranean prefects? (19th-21st century) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, October 07, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14v4x
