French Political System: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

{{quote|'''Article I''' - Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility.<br />

'''Article IIIII''' - The principlegoal of any sovereigntypolitical residesassociation essentiallyis inthe conservation of the Nation.natural Noand bodyimprescriptible [i.e., noinviolable] individualrights canof exertman. authorityThese whichrights doesare notliberty, emanateproperty, expresslysafety fromand it.<brresistance />against oppression.

'''Article VIV''' - TheLiberty lawconsists hasof thedoing rightanything towhich warddoes [i.e.not harm others: thus, forbid]the onlyexercise actionsof [whichthe are]natural harmfulrights toof theeach society.man has only Anythose thingborders which isassure notother wardedmembers [i.e.,of forbidden]the bysociety the lawenjoyment cannotof bethese impeded,same andrights. noThese oneborders can be constraineddetermined toonly do what it [i.e.,by the law] does not order.<br />

'''Article VI''' - The law is the expression of the general will. All the citizens have the right of contributing personally or through their representatives to its formation. It must be the same for all, either that it protects, or that it punishes. All the citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all public dignities, places and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents.<br />

'''Article VII''' - No man can be accused, arrested nor detained but in the cases determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed. Those who solicit, dispatch, carry out or cause to be carried out arbitrary orders, must be punished; but any citizen called [i.e., summoned] or seized under the terms of the law must obey at the moment; he renders himself culpable by resistance.<br />

'''Article VIII''' - The law should establish only strictly and evidently necessary penalties, and no one can be punished but under a law established and promulgated before the offense and [which is] legally applied.<br />

'''Article XIX''' - NoAny oneman maybeing bepresumed questionedinnocent aboutuntil hishe opinionsis declared culpable, [andif the]it sameis [for]judged religiousindispensible [opinions]to arrest him, providedany thatrigor their[i.e., manifestationaction] doeswhich would not troublebe necessary for the publicsecuring orderof establishedhis person must be severely reprimanded by the law.<br />

'''Article XIX''' - TheNo freeone communicationmay ofbe thoughtsquestioned andabout ofhis opinions, is one of[and the] mostsame precious[for] rightsreligious of man: any citizen thus may speak[opinions], write,provided printthat freely,their savemanifestation [ifdoes itnot is necessary] to respond totrouble the abuse of this liberty, in thepublic casesorder determinedestablished by the law.<br />

'''Article XIIXI''' - The guaranteefree communication of thethoughts rightsand of manopinions andis one of the citizenmost necessitatesprecious arights publicof forceman: [i.e.,any acitizen policethus force]:may thisspeak, forcewrite, isprint thusfreely, institutedsave for[if theit advantageis ofnecessary] allto andrespond not forto the particular utilityabuse of thosethis toliberty, whomin itthe iscases confided.<brdetermined />by the law.

'''Article XIII'''XII - ForThe the maintenanceguarantee of the publicrights forceof man and forof the expenditurescitizen ofnecessitates administrationa public force [i.e., a commonpolice contributionforce]: isthis indispensable;force itis mustthus beinstituted equallyfor distributedthe betweenadvantage of all theand citizens,not for the byparticular reasonutility of theirthose facultiesto [i.e.,whom abilityit tois pay]confided.<br />

'''Article XIV''' - Each citizen has the right of noting, by himself or through his representatives, the necessity of the public contribution, of free consent, of following the employment [of the contributions], and of determining the quotient [i.e., the share], the assessment, the recovering [i.e., the collecting] and the duration.<br />

'''Article XVIXV''' - AnyThe society in whichhas the guaranteeright of rightsrequesting is[an] notaccount[ing] assured,from norany thepublic separationagent of powersits determined[i.e., hasthe notsociety's] a bit of Constitutionadministration.<br />

France under the Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential unitary system, with both a President and a Prime Minister. This means, in theory, that both the President and PM have quite a bit of power. In [[Real Life]], however, it means:

The French Parliament is officially a '''bi'''cameral legislature: the lower house (the National Assembly) is elected via Second Ballot (think Louisiana's run-off system), the PM is always from the political majority in the National Assembly, but the president chooses who from the winning party becomes PM (Theorically, the president chooses whoever he wants, but the PM needs the approval of the National Assembly to govern). The Senate is elected by a college of 150,000 great electors (all of them being elected officials, like deputies in the National Assembly, Mayors of the 36.000 French towns, etc...), and co-write the laws with the National Assembly: because its members are not directly elected, they are usually less known that the Deputies, and often accused of being in the Senate because they were unable to win a "real" election.

In this respect, it is similar to the United States Supreme Court, althought it is not at the top of the judicial hierarchy. Indeed, due to the particular organization of its judicial branch, it could be said that France has three Supreme Courts.

* '''Charles de Gaulle''' (1959-1969): As a general, he became the chief of the Free French Forces during [[World War 2]] after the fall of France. Talked on British radio on June 18th 1940 about fighting on. Needless to say, he became a hero of [[La Résistance]]. Became President due to his being rock-like and firm in the face of the [[The French Colonial Empire|Algerian War]], although it turned out that he wasn't firm and rock-like the way his supporters wanted, and in fact gave Algeria its independence. [[Useful Notes/Canada|Canadians]] remember him best for his infamous "Vive le Quebec libre!" comment at Expo 67 in [[Montreal]], which emboldened Quebec separatists and [[Berserk Button|pissed off]] English Canadians to no end. Despite his charisma and popularity, he was seen more and more as dictator-like as his term went on, and was considered way too conservative for the France of [[The Sixties]] - May 1968 will attest as much. He managed to survive the May 1968 revolt by calling a snap election where his party won a crushing majority, but [[But Now I Must Go|quit]] after a referendum on reforming the Senate and administrative divisions was overwhelmingly defeated, because he had promised to resign if it failed. He is still seen as one of the greatest Frenchmen of all time. Famously depicted as very tall, with a big nose, wearing a military uniform with the trademark [[Nice Hat|two-starred kepi]] and forming a "V" with his raised arms.

* '''Georges Pompidou''' (1969-1974): He is mostly famous for his huge eyebrows and keeping his cigarette in his mouth when in public, which was a good thing for political cartoonists. Ironically, he didn't die from throat cancer as one would assume, but from [[wikipedia:Waldenstr%C3%B6m macroglobulinemia|Waldenström's disease]]. Pompidou was less (''way'' less) hostile to the European Economic Community than de Gaulle, his good relations with Chancellor Willy Brandt helping the emergence of the famed Franco-German cooperation, and he broke with his predecessor's obstructionism by voting in favour of the UK's membership. On the domestic front, he spent his first year in office dealing with the devaluation of the franc after the paralysis of May 1968, and his last year saw the long post-war boom (or the ''trente gloriouses'', "thirty glorious years" [[Non -Indicative Name|despite only lasting from 1945 to 1973]]) sputter to a halt in the midst of the 1973 oil crisis.

** While he and his party initially attempted to follow a left-wing, Keynesian program in office, backtracking ensued rather quickly after it led to capital flight and problems with France's adherence to the [[European Union|Exchange Rate Mechanism]], and for the rest of his term governance followed a centrist approach. Some of his term's policies, such as an increased minimum wage, the abolishment of the death penalty, the solidarity tax on wealth or the reduction of the legal workweek to 39 hours, have survived to this day despite being at times repealed (the solidarity tax on wealth was canceled in 1986 by a right-wing government, only to be reinstated in 1988 when the Socialists regained the Prime Minister's office) or failed to be implemented initially (the promised 35-hour workweek came about in 2000). Controversially, Mitterrand ordered the bombing of Greenpeace's ''Rainbow Warrior'' ship in 1985, is [[Written Byby the Winners|alleged]] to have sabotaged Western involvement during the [[Useful Notes/Rwanda|Rwandan]] Genocide due to [[Misplaced Nationalism]] and favouritism towards the Rwandan dictatorship, abused the French anti-terrorist laws and established a special monitoring office to hide Mazarine's existence from the public, was [[Open Secret|revealed]] in 1994 to have held a bureaucratic post in Pétain's government, and his Prime Ministers after 1988 presided over a long string of scandals that tarnished the party, from the usual corruption up to knowingly giving haemophiliacs [[wikipedia:Infected blood scandal (France)|HIV-infected blood]]. By the end of his term, the Socialists and their allies had become so unpopular they'd suffered [[Landslide Election|crushing defeats]] in the local and parliamentary elections of 1992 and 1993.

* '''Jacques Chirac''' (1995-2007): Has an old reputation for being a crook and a liar, and yet managing to remain sympathetic to the public. Apparently, succeeded in winning the 1995 elections because a puppet satirizing him in the news-comedy show ''[[Les Guignols Dede L Infol'info]]'' was very funny and likeable to viewers; his 2002 [[Landslide Election]] victory was because his opponent was a far-right nationalist. Became famous overseas for opposing the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The main "antagonist" of ''[[Asterix|Obelix and Co.]]'' was based on him (during his days as Prime Minister). Some would [[Never Live It Down|never live down his comment]] that there were too many immigrants in France, not to mention ''"the noise and the smell"'' that'd badger honest French citizens. Has a bit of a reputation as unprincipled: he campaigned in 1995 promising to "heal the social fracture" only to appoint a government that tried to push reforms of public services, controversially announced more atomic tests in 1995 before abandoning them after mere months, made the ''Call of Cochin'' in 1976 criticising the EEC-friendly Gaullists only to become a strong EU supporter in office, and so on. His first government, led by Alain Juppé, bombed so spectacularly (proposed changes to labour laws and public healthcare in 1995 led to France's largest strikes since 1968) he dissolved the National Assembly and called fresh elections to try and get a stronger mandate. This move backfired when a leftist coalition won a large majority, leading to a cohabitation with the socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, and making Chirac the first President to lose a snap election he called. D'Estaing holds a lifelong grudge against him because he feels that Chirac intentionally split the vote and helped Mitterrand win in 1981. Was previously the Prime Minister twice (between 1974-1976 and 1986-1988) and Mayor of Paris between 1977-1995, during which time he was accused of corruption and ultimately convicted after leaving office. The French electorate's view of him when he left office can be largely summed up as "good riddance" (and he was also severely unpopular in his first two years in office), whereas nowadays it's a bit closer to "y'know, he probably wasn't as bad as we thought."

* '''François Hollande''' (2012-current): The second left-wing President to be elected in the Fifth Republic, and the first non-married one. He has four children from his previous relation with Ségolène Royal (who was the socialist candidate for presidency in 2007) and his current mate is a political journalist, Valérie Trierweiler. First Secretary of the Socialist Party for eleven years between 1997 and 2008, he is also deputy of the National Assembly for Corrèze's 1st Constituency and President of the General Council of Corrèze <ref>Jacques Chirac carried on the very same functions in Corrèze. He and Hollande are good friends</ref>. His programme includes reflation and renegotiation of current European austerity policies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, [[Determinator|who will likely not give up]]. Time will tell. Other notable scheduled measures include : retirement age back to 60 for people who started to work early in their life (18 mostly), increased minimum wage, massive taxes on highest financial incomes, capping tax loopholes, reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity generation, legalization of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption...

* '''Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste''' (NPA, New Anticapitalist Party): [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. A refoundation of an old trotskyst party, led by young postman Olivier Besancenot until recently, composed of and led by mostly non-professional militants, and proud of this fact. They put an emphasis on ecological and social issues and like the previous party, they consider only social struggle can bring any change.

* '''Front De Gauche''' (Left Front): A gathering of several radical leftwing parties engaged in 2009. It includes the French Communist Party (PCF) led by Pierre Laurent, which was nearly dead after its disastrous score in 2007 (2%); the Left Party (PG) founded in 2009 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon [[Defector From Decadence|who slammed the PS's door because of its more and more right-wing orientations]]; the Unitary Left (GU) led by Christian Picquet, a scission from the NPA (which refuses to join the Left Front); and four other small formations. The Left Front calls for a Constituency Assembly and a Sixth Republic. Their ideas are mostly similar to the NPA but they are less defiant towards change by institutions. In 2012 they were the emerging force of the election, and made an impression with ''massive'' open-air gatherings in Paris (120 000 people), Toulouse (70 000) and Marseille (100 000).

* '''Mouvement Démocrate''' (MoDem): the main centrist party, founded by the former lead of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), François Bayrou (deputy of Pyrénées-Atlantique). Economically mildly liberal, it created a surprise in 2007 with a score of 18,5%, [[One -Episode Wonder|but nothing ensued from it]]. Bayrou explicitly cites the American Democrats as an inspiration (hard to believe, we know, but the "neither socialist nor conservative" thing is actually kind of appealing to some in France), and actually tried to call his party ''Parti démocratique'', but learned that some dinky party nobody had ever heard of already had the name.

* '''Debout la République''' (DLR, Stand Up Republic): Formerly a trend within the UMP, led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, it seceded and became an independent party in 2007, to represent the Gaullist right-wing. They defend a Keynesian capitalism against a deregulated, financial one, as well as a confederal model for the European Union. They also promote the Euro as a common reference currency while getting back national currencies in parallel.

* '''Front National''' (FN): The main nationalist party, founded in the 70s by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Now led by his daughter Marine, and currently trying to [[Buffy-Speak|un-demonize itself]] by tackling finance and neoliberalism (which it still promoted back in 2007). Ironically, they are no more considered antisemitic but are now seen as anti-islamic instead… [[The Same but More|They are even harsher on insecurity and immigration than the UMP]], they're also against the Euro currency and promoted the return of death penalty in France. Notable for reaching the second turn in 2002, dovetailing the socialist candidate with 17%; if French people talk about "April 21", it refers to this. Yes, it was that big a shock. In 2012, Marine Le Pen managed to attract numerous votes among workers with her protectionist promises and capitalized heavily on anti-globalization and the hatred towards Nicolas Sarkozy (who attracted many FN voters in 2007 with his harsh positions on immigration and insecurity). The FN is now considered the third major French political party, to many people's dismay and fear.

* ''[[Les Misérables (Literaturenovel)|Les Misérables]]'' was mentioned above as being set during the July revolution of 1830. This is true: the majority of the book's action, and its most famous scenes, concern the student revolts. But Victor Hugo's epic spans a far greater period of time. The book's first viewpoint character, the Bishop of Digne, is described as a nobleman who escaped the Terror and once met Emperor Napoleon. Fantine, an orphan, was born in that same era, when there was no church and legal records were chaotic. Many years later, when Jean Valjean finds Cosette, he slips a gold Louis into her shoe on Christmas Eve, setting her adoption as during the Restoration -- all this in the first half of the book.