Na-than Glazer, in The Public Interest (Winter 1983), 10 East 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
Ronald Reagan's conservative Republican administration and Fran- qois Mitterrand's Socialist government in France have at least one thing in common. Both are pushing programs of political decentraliza- tion, trying to shift more power from the national to the local level.
For both nations, says Glazer, a Harvard sociologist, the changes rep- resent a sharp departure that suggests a new direction for the...