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French Government

France has a complex system of government with power shared between executive and legislative branches. The executive branch is headed by a powerful president who appoints the prime minister and cabinet. The bicameral legislative branch consists of the directly elected 577-member National Assembly and the 348-member Senate elected by regional representatives. Both houses draft and debate laws, but the National Assembly holds more power and can force the president's resignation through a vote of no confidence. Below the national government are regional and local administrations that perform various functions.

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68 views2 pages

French Government

France has a complex system of government with power shared between executive and legislative branches. The executive branch is headed by a powerful president who appoints the prime minister and cabinet. The bicameral legislative branch consists of the directly elected 577-member National Assembly and the 348-member Senate elected by regional representatives. Both houses draft and debate laws, but the National Assembly holds more power and can force the president's resignation through a vote of no confidence. Below the national government are regional and local administrations that perform various functions.

Uploaded by

Priya Das
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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With modern political institutions dating back to 1789, France is one of the birthplaces of

modern democracy. The current French government runs according to the Constitution of the
French Republic, which was enacted in 1958. France is a republic and a parliamentary
democracy and has a hybrid presidential/parliamentary political system. The head of state is
the French President who appoints the Prime Minister as head of government.
The French parliament is bicameral. The lower chamber is the National Assembly which sits
in the Palais Bourbon with 577 elected deputies. The upper chamber is the Senate which sits
inside the Luxembourg Palace. It has 348 senators elected by an electoral college of
representatives. The Senate has been politically conservative in recent times, with a right-
wing majority in all bar three years since 1958. Although the two chambers have similar
powers, the National Assembly is the more prominent of the two.
The central French government is the main decision-making body in France and oversees
policy development in areas such as healthcare, education, and public transport. However,
there are three tiers of government below the national government that perform various
administrative and legal functions: 18 regions including five overseas territories; 96
departments; and around 35,000 communes.
While talking about the division of power, the executive branch of the French Republic is
the most powerful branch of government in France and this is usually what someone is
referring to when they speak of 'the government.' It is made up of three different parts:
the president, the prime minister, and the cabinet. Of these three, the president is the most
powerful. This is largely because the 1958 Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which still is
the highest law in France, was designed specifically by President Charles de Gaulle to
empower the presidency at the expense of the then-tumultuous and unstable F rench
Parliament.
The French president has the power to do all sorts of things unilaterally, from declaring war
to appointing all the rest of the executive branch. One such position is the prime minister. The
prime minister governs the French Parliament and is essentially the president's man or
woman in the legislature. He or she can introduce bills on behalf of the president and the rest
of the executive branch and consults the president on cabinet positions.
The third part of the executive branch, the cabinet, is made up of heads of the various
ministries of the French government. These ministries divide government services and duties
between one another to create ministries like the Ministry of Finance and Public Accounts or
the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
A second branch of French government is the legislative branch. The legislative branch is
divided into two houses: the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly is
the more powerful of the two branches and it can even force a president to resign if they pass
a motion censuring the president, though this rarely occurs. Instead, the National Assembly is
more preoccupied with crafting and amending laws which are introduced by either private
members or the prime minister. The National Assembly contains 577 members. While most
of these represent rough blocks of about 100,000 French citizens, some also represent French
territories or overseas dependencies. And 11 members even represent French nationals living
abroad. Members of the national assembly serve 5-year terms.
The other half of the legislative branch is the Senate. The Senate is a much smaller house,
made up of 348 members. Rather than being directly elected by the French people, senators
are elected indirectly by the roughly 150,000 Grand Electors of France, generally important
regional figures like parliamentarians or regional counselors. The Senate's main duties are
similar to that of the National Assembly's: creating and/or amending laws introduced by its
members or the executive branch.
After various amendments and debates, both the National Assembly's and the Senate's
version of the bill have to agree. If they cannot reach a compromise, then the National
Assembly is allowed to break the tie.

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