Franck’s Gagnaire article « French concerns about the decentralization of social policy » presents an analysis of the detailed process of decentralization of social policy. The author draws attention to the existing contradictions in the setting process. The basic contradiction has to do with competitiveness, on the one hand the principle of decentralization (self-rule), and on the other — the principle of universal and equal access to benefits and social services in France, linked to the concept of national solidarity. This original ambiguity, characterized by decentralization of French social policy towards the elderly, but is now irrelevant in the context of the financial problems of local and contemporary trends of evolution of French social policy. In this article the author analyzes the proposals appearing in the French legal doctrine to alleviate this ambivalence. There two lines of solutions: a partial refocusing of social policy and the search for a new balance between the various levels of public authority acting in the field of social policy.