Territorial Collectivity of Alsace: Territorial Reforms in France as a Step to Ethnopolitical Revival of the Region

Since the 1980s, France has pursued a policy of decentralization to simplify the implementation of at the local level. One such reform in the 2010s, which will be the focus of this paper, halved the number of regions and created an entirely new entity, the Grand Est, which included the two departments of Alsace: Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin. Little historical justification for unification and the fear of losing ethnic identity mobilized the population. A compromise was worked out: the European Collectivity (Community) of Alsace emerged, which was called the “superdepartment†— a unique innovation in France.Purpose: to identify in the historical dynamics, how the territorial-administrative functions of Alsace as a region changed, what powers it has at the moment through the prism of administrative-territorial reforms in France.Methods: analysis and synthesis of empirical data; system analysis; retrospective approach; comparative analysis.Results and Discussion: The new law on differentiation, decentralization, deconcentration and various measures to simplify the implementation of local public action (3DS law) was preceded by three acts of decentralization. The first had the task of launching decentralization, the second consolidated the successes in the constitution, the third tried to reduce bureaucratic costs and redistribute powers. The most important for Alsace turned out to be the Third Act, or rather the reaction to it.Conclusions: French administrative and territorial reforms were one of the main causes of the autonomist threat. To prevent it, the French government approved a referendum on the creation of the European Collectivity (Community) of Alsace. This decision did not eliminate the problem of the so-called historical illegitimacy of the Grand Est region, but allowed the territorial community to develop with additional privileges. The geographical position of Alsace in the center of Europe on the border of Germany and Switzerland and its status as one of the capitals of the EU also played its role.