French Political System: Difference between revisions

{{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 II''' - The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible [i.e., inviolable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.<br />

'''Article III''' - The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it.<br />

'''Article IV''' - Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights. These borders can be determined only by the law.<br />

'''Article V''' - The law has the right to ward [i.e., forbid] only actions [which are] harmful to the society. Any thing which is not warded [i.e., forbidden] by the law cannot be impeded, and no one can be constrained to do what it [i.e., 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 IX''' - Any man being presumed innocent until he is declared culpable, if it is judged indispensible to arrest him, any rigor [i.e., action] which would not be necessary for the securing of his person must be severely reprimanded by the law.<br />

'''Article X''' - No one may be questioned about his opinions, [and the] same [for] religious [opinions], provided that their manifestation does not trouble the public order established by the law.<br />

'''Article XI''' - The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, print freely, save [if it is necessary] to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases determined by the law.<br />

Article XII - The guarantee of the rights of man and of the citizen necessitates a public force [i.e., a police force]: this force is thus instituted for the advantage of all and not for the particular utility of those to whom it is confided.<br />

'''Article XIII''' - For the maintenance of the public force and for the expenditures of administration, a common contribution is indispensable; it must be equally distributed between all the citizens, by reason of their faculties [i.e., ability to pay].<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 XV''' - The society has the right of requesting [an] account[ing] from any public agent of its [i.e., the society's] administration.<br />

'''Article XVI''' - Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured, nor the separation of powers determined, has not a bit of Constitution.<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.

* '''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 on 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).

* '''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.