Week 1: The French
Presidency
Constitution of Fifth
Republic (established 1958) ambiguous, even ‘ambivalent’ (- Yves Mény) on
extent of presidential power.
So:
· incumbents
matter (individual presidents seek to
use the ambiguity to enhance their power)
· so do elections,
which can give rise to ‘cohabitation’ (different parties simultaneously
controlling the Presidency and Parliament) - e.g. 1997-2002 with Jacques Chirac
(Gaullist) as President and Lionel Jospin (Socialist) as PM.
Background
Fifth Republic saw reaction
against instability of Third (1870-1940) and Fourth republics (1946-58): 4th
had 25 governments and 15 PMs in 12 years. Both were parliamentary regimes.
Support for a new
presidential regime a result of this instability and the crisis provoked by
Algerian war of liberation (1954-62): latter brought down Fourth Republic.
Charles De Gaulle returned as ‘providential’ leader. President 1959-69.
Reassured French Army and settlers, but then negotiated withdrawal from Algeria
with the National Liberation Front (FLN).
New Constitution in fact
strengthened roles of both President
and PM—not so obvious at first since both were Gaullist. Georges Pompidou as PM
from 1962.
De Gaulle a ‘strong’
president, yet his presidency saw some moments of instability:
· early 1960s
right-wing terrorism by the ‘Secret Army Organisation’ (OAS)
· 1962
parliamentary revolt by parties of left and right, opposed to
‘presidentialisation’ of regime
· May ’68
revolutionary movement, involving a general strike and a student-worker
uprising in Paris
De Gaulle could always count
on a supportive Gaullist PM and majority in Parliament, but was not necessarily
the ‘strongest’ President of the Fifth Republic.
French Presidents of the
Fifth Republic
1959-69 Charles de Gaulle
1969-74 Georges Pompidou
1974-81 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
1981-95 François Mitterrand
1995- Jacques Chirac
De Gaulle concentrated
on relatively few areas of policy. Successors expanded the presidential
‘reserved domain’ beyond the issue areas on which he concentrated (foreign
affairs, EEC, defence, colonial/French Community issues)
Pompidou added economic, financial and industrial policy, Giscard added
social and environmental policy, etc.
Mitterrand and Chirac also benefited for a while from the accentuation
of intergovernmentalism in the EU, post-Maastricht.
‘Cohabitation’
Not a serious problem at first:
·
In the 1970s, Giscard, although an Independent Republican, was close to
the Gaullists
·
Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the republic, exercised
the presidency in the same way as the Gaullists, as a ‘national’ leader
·
Mitterrand worked quite well with conservative PMs and periods of
co-habitation were at first short-lived (1986-88, 1993-95)
Became a real problem 1997:
·
Chirac had exercised great power from 1995, but lost a snap parliamentary
election and Jospin became PM
·
For the first time ever, cohabitation lasted full parliamentary term (5
years)
·
Loss of Chirac’s dominance in foreign policy left France weak at a time
of important EU decisions
Reform approved in referendum, September 2000:
·
Presidential term cut to five years
·
Centre-right went on to win presidential and parliamentary elections
2001 (Chirac President, Jean-Pierre Raffarin PM)