Biography

Justin Daniel is professor of political science at the University of the French Antilles and French Guiana. He is currently the Vice-President of the Scientific Council and Director of the "Centre of Research on Local Powers in the Caribbean". He previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics in Martinique. His research interest focuses on political systems and political mobilization in the Caribbean, and on politics in the French overseas territories as well as cooperation and integration in the Americas. He has written extensively on these topics for academic journals and books. He presently works on the phenomena of identity assertions within Caribbean societies and Caribbean migrants in the metropolises.

Article Title

The Ambiguities of the French Model of "Departmentalization"

Abstract

The transformation in 1946 of the three "old" French colonies in the Caribbean – Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique – into overseas departments (DOM) may be interpreted as a form of decolonization by full integration within the French Republic. However, three observations strongly qualify this viewpoint. On the one hand, departmentalization reveals a series of contradictions and paradoxes inherent to the antinomy between the "Republican project" and the colonial framework. On the other hand, far from having solved these contradictions, its implementation has been largely hampered, exacerbating the struggle for full citizenship, equality and recognition. Finally, almost seventy years after the adoption of the Act of March 19, 1946, the quest for a political status more appropriate to the local societies continues, while the economic dependency upon France seems increasingly threatened, given the structural crisis of departmentalization and the fiscal crisis of the French State.