Parmi les institutions politiques locales, les villes et les regions apparaissent a beaucoup porteuses de modernite, tandis que le departement serait le temoin d une France rurale du passe. A partir d une analyse de la politique d Electricite de France (EDF) l auteur recuse totalement cette interpretation. Le departement a toujours ete un echelon dans la politique d EDF, hier comme aujourd hui dans le cadre de l ouverture des marches. Si les choix recents excluent une organisation sur une base regionale, demeure ouverte la question des limites territoriales des nouvelles structures qui organisent en interne la firme.
Among local political institutions in France, towns and regions seem, to many observers, to be vehicles for modernity whereas departments are vestiges of a rural past. This analysis of the policy of the public electric utility (Electricite de France) strongly objects to this interpretation. In the past, EDF maintained two types of relations with departments. For one thing, rural electrification was based on ''departmental syndicates''. For another, although the company was vertically integrated, supervisors at local centers had a margin of maneuver for dealing with elected officials at the departmental level. In the current context of open markets, EDF still relies on departmental structures in order to renegotiate its contracts for distributing electricity. Although departments are still quite alive, and even though recent decisions exclude a regionally based organization, the question of the territorial boundaries of the new ''responsible groups'' taking shape inside EDF is still open.