A pays d'élection was a généralité

Généralité

Recettes générales, commonly known as généralités , were the administrative divisions of France under the Ancien Régime and are often considered to prefigure the current préfectures...

, in fiscal and financial matters, in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 under the Ancien Régime. The representative of the royal government, the intendant, split up the impôts in such an area at a local level with the aid of the élus (who were for a long time elected by the States-General

French States-General

In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...

, hence the name of their office and of pays d'élection—from 1614 to 1789 the States-General did not meet and the king thus named an intendant for this role, though the areas retained the name pays d'élection). This was in contrast to a pays d'état like Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 or Burgundy, where fiscal policy was regulated by particular rules and benefitted from a certain autonomy, or a pays d'imposition like Franche-Comté

Franche-Comté

Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...

.