The French political system

Fifty years after its foundation, the Fifth Republic has greatly changed since the 1958 Constitution, and another institutional revision is currently being considered, evidence of the vitality of France’s institutional system. However, its basic characteristics remain, its inner workings, the system of representation and the guarantee of citizens’ rights.

By what path has France’s history led to the hyper-presidential system it now uses? How have political parties changed and the behaviour of electors who are expected to turn out to vote for all levels from commune to Europe?

Apparently the left-right division that has shaped French people’s choices for decades is beginning to dissolve in the face of the challenges of globalisation and the future of Europe. Is a new form of political culture and democratic process being born?

The French political system is special in two ways.

 It is neither a parliamentary system like the British one, where the executive emerges from Parliament, nor a system of separation of powers like the American one, where the President must take account of Congress: the French Fifth Republic is a hybrid system characterised by a Presidency that is oversized in the absence of adequate counterweights.

 France also differs from most major modern democracies in using two-round single-winner voting rather than one-round (United States, United Kingdom) or proportional representation (continental Europe), which encourages a large number of parties (in the first round) and two major electoral coalitions (in the second), left and right.

However, there have been many changes to the French sys tem s inc e t h e f o u n d a - tion of the Fifth Republic: institutionsand politics have continually evolved to achieve their present shape.

Source : France 2008, La Documentation française