Changes in flood risk governance in France: a David and Goliath story?
Résumé
When analysing ood risk governance in France since the beginning of the1980s, central government appears as a predominant actor. However, to under-stand contemporary French ood risk governance (FRG), it is also important tohighlight how this domination has progressively been undermined since 1982.First, a decentralisation movement has been initiated whose main characteristicsare an increasing involvement of local governments and a difculty for nationalauthorities to maintain their predominant role. The second main change is adiversication in ood risk strategies going together with a diversication in thedenition of the ood risk issue. FRG is not a sole matter of protection throughdefence, preparation, and recovery strategies anymore. Both prevention and miti-gation strategies have progres sively gained in legitimacy. It is in the latter thatlocal governments and stakeholders have increasingly got involved and havetaken up responsibilities and initiatives. The paper focu ses on the explanatoryfactors behind both stability and change, and especially on the ongoing tension,between path dependency factors (i.e. state power and role) and organisationalcapability of local actors.