Comparative analysis shows that for two centuries there has been a certain convergence of speeches and public policies about risks: the approach on climatic change succeeded the speech on the deforestation of mountains, and legal hazard mapping replaced the afforestation and forests protection. However, a finer analysis reveals important differences in the repartition of the competences among the different actors of risk management, with the application of preventive information and more importantly hazard mapping. The political organisation, which gives a more or less significant role to local communities in the development of zoning, constitutes one of the explanations of these differences. Equally to be taken into consideration is the political culture as well as risk philosophy, which associates the present and inherited political, social, economic and cultural contexts as well as the dominant representations in the administrations.
