Abstract EN:

The renewal of the intercommunal structures and management practises depend on the territorial strategies of the existing (departements) or growing up (big cities, middle - sized cities and regions) local governments which might be in competition for the control of local territory. The intercommunal integration intervenes less under the pressure of economic constraints and cultural factors than according to the decentralized political system which is rather autonomous. As they serve the local development or at least as they claim to do so, the local governments draw various intercommunal strategies which allow them undeniably to consolidate (departments), enlarge (cities) or control (regions) their institutionnal territory. Thus, the understanding of the intercommunality and the local power are linked. The evolution of intercommunal organisations and policies depend on the territorial strategies of the local governments. On the contrary, the new kind of intercommunality reveals the evolutive structure and the elements of the local political system which are at stacke.