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