“What they point to is not so much the failure of city policy as that of all public policies”

2023-07-06 06:30:06

Since the early 1980s, the waves of rioting in working-class neighborhoods have been accompanied by fiery interpretive controversies in the media. The explanations offered have varied over time, but one argument spans the decades that seems to have consensus among all commentators: the riot marks the failure of city policy. The policy thus called into question has nevertheless undergone significant changes over the past forty years, most often following episodes of riots. If there is a failure of city policy, it is not the same policy that failed in the early 1990s, in 2005 or today.

The judgment of failure seems all the more indisputable in 2023 as the State would have mobilized, for fifteen years, considerable budgets for working-class neighborhoods. The recurring announcements of a new “suburb plan” have given credence to this idea of ​​a richly endowed city policy. Although these announcements have most often remained announcements, they have paved the way for the denunciation of “billions for the suburbs”, for the benefit of populations who do not deserve it.

Led by socially fractured entrepreneurs, this criticism was all the more devastating in that it was prolonged by a competition between territorial suffering, opposing the disadvantaged neighborhoods of the metropolises and a “peripheral France” with vague outlines but whose the color is clear. The former would benefit from positive discrimination, to the detriment of medium-sized towns, peri-urban areas and rural areas, whose populations are nevertheless severely affected by industrial restructuring and job insecurity, austerity policies and closures of public services, as well as the increase in the cost of living.

Criticism of inefficiency then turns into a questioning of the very legitimacy of urban policy, illustrated by this formula which flourishes on the far right: we undress “peripheral France” to dress the one who lives the other side of the ring-road.

Less than 1% of the state budget

However, it must be repeated tirelessly: neighborhoods that combine all the social difficulties do not benefit from preferential treatment. City policy credits have always been limited, less than 1% of the state budget. As shown by numerous research and evaluation works as well as several reports by the Court of Auditors, the means allocated under this policy are not sufficient to compensate for the unequal allocation of the budgets of other public policies (education, employment, health, safety, etc., which systematically operates to the detriment of so-called “priority” neighborhoods and their inhabitants.

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