Administration of Paris

The more important, directly elected lower house, the National Assembly, meets at the Palais Bourbon in the 7th arrondissement.

[4] The Conseil d'État, which provides legal advice to the executive and acts as the highest court in the administrative order, judging litigation against public bodies, is located in the Palais Royal in the 1st arrondissement.

At the 1790 division, during the French Revolution, of France into communes, and again in 1834, Paris was a city only half its modern size, composed of 12 arrondissements.

[citation needed] A direct representative of the king, in a role resembling somewhat the préfet of later years, the Provost (prévôt) of Paris oversaw the application and execution of law and order in the city and its surrounding prévôté (county) from his office in the Grand Châtelet.

For centuries, the prévôt and magistrates of the Châtelet, clashed with the administrators of the Hôtel de Ville over jurisdiction.

At any one time, therefore, 336 men had shared administrative responsibility for street cleaning and maintenance, for public health, law, and order.

The quartiniers maintained the official lists of "bourgeois de Paris", ran local elections, could impose fines for breaches of the bylaws, and had a role in tax assessment.

They met at the Hôtel de Ville to confer on matters of citywide importance and each year selected eight of "the most notable inhabitants of the quarter", who together with other local officials would elect the city council.

[citation needed]On 14 July 1789, the last of the Prévôt des marchands of Paris was assassinated on the afternoon of the French Revolution Storming of the Bastille.

[citation needed] Through the turmoil of the 1794 Thermidorian Reaction, it became apparent that revolutionary Paris's political independence was a threat to any governing power.

This left the largest city in the nation as the only one without a mayor, meaning that Paris had less autonomy than the smallest village.

The Prefecture of Police, also directing Paris's fire brigades, for example, has a jurisdiction extending to Paris's petite couronne of bordering three départements for some operations such as fire protection or rescue operations, and is directed by France's national government.

Paris's alienation of its suburbs is indeed a problem today, and one of the main causes of civil unrest such as the suburban riots in 2005.

Paris' influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.