Which is of course impossible as long as politicians have jobs anc prestige that they want to keep. Thus the indiract way around this, by creating new roles that slowly take over roles.
In the case of _communautés urbaines8 I think that people understand reasonably well how they work, and there is a balance in that typically the main city will represent about 50% of the overall population and thus there is a natural balance between the core and the suburbs. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The only way to achieve such a reform is to empower the regions and the communities of municipalities (like urban communities or "pays"). One way to do so would be to elect the executive bodies of these communities through universal suffrage. Taken in a "pincer" between two local authorities with a greater democratic legitimacy, the département would slowly fade away.
This reform was proposed in the first draft of the "Chevènement law", but it was dropped due to an intense lobbying of the conseillers généraux (elected representatives of the départements). The Socialist Party didn't have the political guts to maintain it. "Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
The small commune as a social relationship utility ; the scale of a few hundred to a few thousand people gives rise to a useful political entity, which should see its role in very local matters clearly delineated with those of the communauté. For example, this a proper scale at which to introduce direct and/or participative democracy. Quartier administration in larger Municipalities could have that role. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
