Note (Back) — Chapter XVIII

381. The Department: the General Council.—As executive head of the department the prefect is required to work with a conseil général, or representative assembly, elected by the inhabitants of the department on a basis of manhood suffrage. This council comprises one member chosen in each canton for a period of six years, half of the number retiring every three years. The actual powers of the body are not large. Aside from the apportioning of the direct taxes among the arrondissements, they are restricted pretty generally to the administration of highways, canals, schools, asylums, and similar interests. Questions of a political nature or of a national bearing are rigorously excluded from consideration. The council has but two ordinary sessions a year—one extending through not more than fifteen days, the other not more than a month. The longer begins regularly in August and is devoted to the consideration of the budget. During the intervals between sessions the council is represented by a commission départementale, or permanent delegation, of from four to seven members. Neither the council nor the delegation possesses any considerable measure of control over the prefect. The council's acts may be vetoed by the President of the Republic, and, except when the national parliament is in session, the body may be dissolved by the same power. The department is an essentially artificial political unit. During the century and a quarter of its existence it has not become—indeed has been prevented deliberately from becoming—a sphere of forceful, independent governmental activity.[514]