Prefects, Governors and Commissioners Territorial Representatives of the State in Europe

Is the Prefect an exception, surviving only in France and some countries influenced by Napoleon? No! This book tells the varied stories of the resilience, in most European States and under different names, of the prefectoral institution. It is the first comparative book in English studying these territorial administrators who have a go-between role in centre-periphery relations and a nodal role in territorial governance. Gathering a multidisciplinary team of scholars under the auspices of the European Group for Public Administration, this volume offers a fine-grained analysis of 17 national cases, examines cross-country data, and proposes a theoretical frame made of a Weberian ideal-type with three variants, to better comprehend and explain the permanence and changes of the prefectoral figure.

About the author

Gildas Tanguy is Associate Professor at Sciences Po Toulouse and deputy-director of the Laboratory of the Social Sciences of the Polity (LaSSP).


Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans is the President of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA), and a Professor at Sciences Po Toulouse-LaSSP.

Product details

• Assisted by: Gildas Tanguy (Editor), Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans (Editor), Gilda Tanguy (Editor), Eymeri-Douzans (Editor), Eymeri-Douzans (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Content: Book
• Product form: Paperback / Softback
• Publication date: 12.01.2022
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education
• EAN: 9783030593988
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3059398-8
• Pages: 458
• Illustrations: XXIV, 458 p. 6 illus., 1 illus. in color.
• Dimensions (packing): 14.8 x 2.5 x 21 cm
• Series: Governance and Public Management
• Subjects: Zentralregierung, governors, Commissioners, sub-nationalgovernment, Europeanpublicadministration, territorialrepresentation, centralisedstate, prefects