Departement

Departement, or department, is a term used to describe a distinct unit within an organization or government that groups together people and activities around a common function. In everyday use, a department can be a division within a company, such as finance or marketing, or a division within a university, such as history or physics. In government, the term is used for major administrative units or for territorial divisions, and its exact meaning varies by country.

In France, the department (département) is a territorial division created during the French Revolution. France is subdivided into metropolitan and overseas departments, which are grouped into regions. Each department has a prefect representing the central government and an elected departmental council that oversees local services, infrastructure, and social policy; the two levels coordinate with regional authorities. There are 101 departments in France.

Outside France, the term department is used in various contexts with different powers. In many Latin-language countries, similar subnational divisions are called departamentos. In business and academia, departments are standardized functional units with a head or chair, responsible for specific areas of work or study, and they often manage budgets and staff within a larger organization.

Etymology: the term derives from the French département, coined during late 18th-century administrative reforms to subdivide the state into manageable parts. It has since been adopted globally to label both territorial divisions and internal organizational units.