[EM] French system creates power struggle

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

D- One of these centuries there will be separation of legislative, executive 
and judicial powers and *democratic* election systems (to get rid of various 
monarchy/ oligarchy systems that keep causing all sorts of problems).
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http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/france/12/05/political.system/index.html

French system creates power struggle

By CNN.com Europe's Craig Francis 

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The French political system, with its strong 
president and a prime minister of ambiguous stature, is something of an 
anomaly within European politics. 

Unlike countries such as Italy, Spain and the UK, each with an elected 
prime minister in charge of the day-to-day running of the country and a 
separate, non-political head of state, the French president is popularly 
elected and then appoints the prime minister. 

Ordinarily, this arrangement would see the French president fulfilling a 
role similar to that of the prime minister in other countries, or the 
chancellor in Germany. 
 
But in French politics, life is not always that simple. 

The situation is complicated when, as exists at the moment, the French 
president -- in this case the conservative Jacques Chirac -- does not 
have a political majority among the elected lower house, or National 
Assembly, and therefore cannot appoint an ally as prime minister. 

In this case the president must appoint a prime minister from the 
majority faction -- a situation that dilutes the powers of the president 
and strengthens the position of the opposition party prime minister. 
Pros and cons

That appointee is currently Socialist leader Lionel Jospin, who since 
assuming office in 1997 has regularly been at loggerheads with Chirac, 
who took the presidency in 1995. 

The balance of power between the president, elected every seven years, 
and the prime minister therefore depends on who has the support of the 
National Assembly, elected every five years. 

This cross-pollination of parliamentary and presidential political 
systems has its pros as well as cons, according to Jacques Reland, head 
of European Studies at London Guildhall University. 

"There can be some confusion surrounding the roles of the president and 
prime minister during this period referred to by the French as 
cohabitation, as we have with Jospin and Chirac," said Reland. 

"The arguable intention of the constitution is that the president be the 
lynchpin, but during cohabitation the prime minister has the upper hand 
for about 95 percent of all issues," he said. 

"On the plus side, however, it can be said that when a decision is 
reached between the two sides of the political spectrum, the decision 
can be said to have a broader consensus. France could then say it was 
speaking with one voice." 
One man's impact

According to the French constitution, the president's powers are 
relatively limited, involving the usual head-of-state figurehead roles 
-- presiding over the higher councils and committees of national 
defence, acting as commander in chief of the armed forces, signing the 
more important decrees, appointing high civil servants and judges and 
dissolving the National Assembly. 

But today's reality is somewhat different -- much because of one man. 

Charles de Gaulle's great influence on the presidency from 1958-69 and 
the pressures of unstable political conditions reinforced the authority 
of the presidency at the expense of the rest of the government. 

Whereas the constitution charges the government to "determine and 
direct" the policy of the nation, de Gaulle assumed a more central role. 

Since then, his successors have adopted a similar pattern of behaviour, 
assuming responsibility for major portfolios such as foreign affairs, 
defence, health, education and the economy. 

The prime minister, however, has gradually gained in stature. 

Constitutionally, he is responsible for the determination of 
governmental policy and exercises control over the civil service and 
armed forces. 

And while all major decisions tended to be taken at the Élysée Palace 
(the residence of the president) under de Gaulle, responsibility for 
policy, at least in internal matters, has slowly passed to the head of 
the government. 

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