France - The Devolution Revolution
"I do believe deeply that given the process of European unification, the process of globalisation, France will have to adjust itself to a new relationship with it's regions." Dominic Moisi, international affairs expert.
Ever since the French revolution, France has been a fiercely centralised state. Any thought of regional devolution has been regarded as a threat to the identity of the state, a sop to the perfidious march of the English language over French.
Protecting the integrity of the state is seen as the last bastion against the steady erosion of their precious culture by an anglo-saxon conspiracy in the guise of globalisation.
But a recent decision by the French Government to accede to limited autonomy for Corsica, after a twenty year terrorist campaign, has driven a major wedge in the protection of centralised Government at all costs.
Now regions all over France with separate cultural roots have stepped up their efforts for autonomy. Whether it's the Basques in South West France, the Celts in Brittany or the Alsacians on the German border, displays of cultural identity and pressure for political autonomy are on the rise and all point to the example set by the Corsican decision.
European correspondent Barrie Cassidy has been criss-crossing France to assess this growing march to devolution. He discovers that, like elsewhere in the world, the process of globalisation is threatening the nation state and pressure for more regional autonomy the inevitable result.
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