Politics in France
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Transcript of Politics in France
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Politics in France
The political system
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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
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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)
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Fourth Republic (1946 - 1958)
• Crises of the Fourth Republic– 24 governments in 12 years
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1958 Constitution• Passed referendum which
increased powers of the president
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President of the Fifth Republic
• directly elected by voters (since 1962)• renewable term of 5 years (since 2000)
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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Legislature
• Power of parliament was restricted by the 1958 Constitution of the Fifth Republic
• Two houses (bicameral)– National Assembly
• 577 members– Senate
• 348 members
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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
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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
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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
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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