Politics in France

The political system

French Republic: the basics• Population: 66 million • Constitutional republic • Unitary state• Semi-presidential system

(President and a Prime Minister)

• First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system with “Two-round” process

• Bicameral Legislature: National Assembly and Senate

5 Republics & 2 Empires

• First Republic was ended (1803) by Napoleon’s First Empire

• Second Republic was ended (1851) by Napoleon III’s Second Empire

• Third Republic was ended (1940) by German occupation

• Fourth Republic (1946 - 1958)• Fifth Republic (1958-Present)

Fourth Republic (1946 - 1958)

• Crises of the Fourth Republic– 24 governments in 12 years

1958 Constitution• Passed referendum which

increased powers of the president

President of the Fifth Republic

• directly elected by voters (since 1962)• renewable term of 5 years (since 2000)

President’s power

• Head of state• appoints prime minister• appoint ministers• Can dissolve the National Assembly• submit legislation to a referendum• emergency power (up to 6 months)• Commander-in-chief of the armed forces

The Prime Minister• Is subordinate to the President except in those

circumstances when the prime minister comes from a different party

• Under co-habitation, the powers of both leaders are equal

• Prime Minister is responsible for domestic affairs while President is commander in chief and deals with foreign affairs

• Prime Minister has same power as prime ministers in a parliamentary system (chooses cabinet), but needs to have support of the lower assembly and the President

Presidential elections

• elected by absolute majority of votes– no presidential candidate has obtained the

absolute majority on the first ballot• if no candidate wins majority in first ballot

– the top two candidates stand for election in a second runoff ballot

• impact on voter turnout (80% turnout in 2012 compared to 58% in 2012 U.S. election)

President & Prime Minister

• President appoints and chooses prime minister and other ministers

• President chairs the Council of Ministers• Prime minister has to harness

parliamentary majority for presidential policies

Example of the Two-round system

French Presidential Election 2002

Round 1:Jacques Chirac: 19.88%Jean-Marie Le Pen: 16.86%Lionel Jospin: 16.18%Round 2:Jacques Chirac: 82.12%Jean-Marie Le Pen: 17.82%

Jean-Marie Le Pen

President & Prime Minister• When president and the

prime minister are from the same political party, the prime minister is subordinate to president

• Cohabitation– president and prime minister

from different political parties

– 1986 - 1988, 1993 - 1995, 1997 - 2002

Legislature

• Power of parliament was restricted by the 1958 Constitution of the Fifth Republic

• Two houses (bicameral)– National Assembly

• 577 members– Senate

• 348 members

Parliament

• incompatibility clause– members of parliament

have to give up their seats once appointed to a cabinet

• bloc (blocked) vote– National Assembly have to

vote either for or against the government’s draft as a whole

– cannot offer any amendments to the bill

L’assemble Nationale

Senate• Senators are indirectly

elected by an electoral college– less than 150,000 people

select senators– municipal, departmental, and

regional council members– rural constituencies are over-

represented• Senate can initiate

legislation

Senate

• Senate must consider all bills adopted by the National Assembly

• if the two houses disagree– government can appoint a joint committee to

try to resolve the differences– government can re-submit the bill to the

National Assembly for a definitive vote

National Assembly elections

• Single-member district– 577 districts

• two-ballot system– if no candidate wins a majority, a second ballot is held

one week later– any candidate winning at least 12.5% of the vote on

the first ballot can run on the second– incentives for parties to develop electoral alliances– French presidential election, 2012 - Wikipedia, the fre

e encyclopedia