France new regions planning? Better order or more disorder ?

Abstract

This paper grounds the critique of the 'reduction of regions in a country' not only in its geographical and social context but also in its entropic space. The various recent plans leading to the reduction of the number of regions in metropolitan France are discussed, based on the mere distribution in the number of cities in the plans and analyzed according to various distribution laws. Each case, except the present distribution with 22 regions, on the mainland, does not seem to fit presently used theoretical models. Beside, the number of inhabitants is examined in each plan. The same conclusion holds. Therefore a theoretical argument based on entropy considerations is proposed, thereby pointing to whether more order or less disorder is the key question, - discounting political considerations.