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France Reopens the Constitutional Debate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
Less than six years have passed since the Constitution of the Fourth Republic was put into operation, yet every political group in France with the exception of the Communist Party, which has its own special plans for France's future, is currently participating in a movement for constitutional revision. Since July, 1950, no candidate for the post of Prime Minister has neglected to assert in his ministerial declaration the need for constitutional reform. The parties of the Third Force majority of the first legislature of the Fourth Republic set into motion for the first time, in November, 1950, the machinery for the amendment of the Constitution. The momentum which the revisionist movement had already gathered was given greater impetus by the elections of June, 1951, which reinforced markedly the political groups opposed to the Constitution at its inception. These groups had been able to muster only 106 votes in the Second Constituent Assembly of 1946. Later, in the first legislature but after the formation of a Gaullist parliamentary group, their strength rose to approximately 160 seats. And as a result of the elections of June, 1951, the same groups now command 300 seats in the second legislature.
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- The European Scene
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- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1952
References
1 The amendment procedure is as follows: First, a resolution stating the object of the amendment must be passed by an absolute majority of the members of the National Assembly. The resolution must be accepted again by an absolute majority of the members of the National Assembly not less than three months later, unless the Council of the Republic has adopted the same resolution by an absolute majority of its members. After either of these procedures has been followed, the National Assembly draws up a bill to amend the Constitution, which is treated like any other bill. Once passed by both houses, the amendment is submitted to popular referendum unless it has been accepted by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly or by a three-fifths majority in both houses, in either of which cases the referendum is not required.
2 There are three such peculiarities: 1) the method of election is indirect, proceeding through three stages; 2) proportional representation applies only in the eleven largest departments; whereas in all the others a majority system à deux tours is used; and 3) the rural areas are over-represented relative to the urban areas.
3 The Radicals (including the UDSR) hold 15 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly, 27 per cent in the Council of the Republic. The Conservatives (Peasants, PRL and Independents) hold 16 per cent of the seats in the Assembly, 22 per cent in the Council.
4 See L'Aube, Nov. 3, 1946.
5 In Notes d'information politique (an internal mimeographed bulletin of the MRP), No. 26, Nov. 5, 1947, it was asserted that after the RPF's success in the elections of October, 1947, MRP pressure for constitutional revision “would take on a significance and lead to consequences which have nothing to do with the specific constitutional preoccupations of the MRP.” At the fifth MRP congress in May, 1949, Albert Gortais implied, in his report on general policy, that the Constitution would already have been revised had it not been for the “intensive propaganda campaign” of the RPF (MRP, En marche vers l'avenir, Travaux du Ve Congrès National, p. 25).
6 See François de Menthon's report on general policy to the sixth MRP congress, May, 1950 (mimeographed).
7 The quotation is from Daniel Mayer's speech, in which he almost apologetically raised the question of constitutional revision, at the Socialist Party congress in May, 1950. See Parti Socialiste SFIO, 42e Congrès National, Compte Rendu Sténographique (Paris), p. 316Google Scholar.
8 Idem.
9 See Le Monde, July 8, 1950.
10 L'Année Politique 1950 (Paris, 1951), pp. 149–150Google Scholar.
11 The basic parliamentary documents to consult are: Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires, Assemblée Nationale, Nov. 30, 1950, Dec. 1, 1950; Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires, Conseil de la République, Jan. 26, 1951; Assemblée Nationale, Rapport, No. 11431, Nov. 28, 1950; Conseil de la République, Rapport, No. 895 (rectifie), Dec. 28, 1950.
12 The minor changes concern Articles 7, 9, 12 and 22.
13 The correspondence is published in L'Année Politique 1949 (Paris, 1950), pp. 334–335Google Scholar.
14 This rigidity has created some absurd difficulties. Several amusing examples are cited in Assemblée Nationale, Rapport, No. 11431, and in Conseil de la République, Proposition de Résolution, No. 329, April 8, 1949.
15 Two Prime Ministers, Robert Schuman in September, 1948, and Henri Queuille in July, 1950, fell shortly after the composition of their Cabinets was announced. Two others, Jules Moch and René Mayer, both in October, 1949, were formally invested by the Assembly but were unable to form Cabinets at all.
16 Actually, the MRP's plan for revising the investiture system is not the same as that of the Socialists, Radicals and Conservatives, but it would produce essentially the same result.
17 During a debate on the composition and policy of his government, Queuille said: “Whether I am reversed today … or at a later date … I have no intention of using the weapon of dissolution. Given the consequences that dissolution would have on the government of the country, to put into motion the constitutional machinery in its present form would, in my opinion, lead to a catastrophe” (Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires, Assemblée Nationale, July 4, 1950, p. 5349Google Scholar).
18 Assemblée Nalionale, Proposition de Résolution, No. 11480, Dec. 1, 1950.
19 Assemblée Nationale, Proposition de Résolution, No. 402, July 31, 1951.
20 Le Rassemblement, Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 1951.
21 The basic party documents are: the motion on constitutional reform passed by the second National Council, in Le Rassemblement, Oct. 9, 1948; RPF, Deuxièmes Assises Nationales, Documentation, Rapport sur la Révision de la Constitution par M. René Capitant; the motion passed by the second congress, in Le Rassemblement, Feb. 19, 1949; the motion passed by the third congress, ibid., July 1, 1950; Capitant's report to the third congress, ibid., July 22 and Aug. 12, 1950; the motion passed by the National Council in Nov., 1951, ibid., Nov. 9–15, 1951; the motion passed by the fourth congress, ibid., Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 1951.
22 Louis Vallon, one of the RPF leaders, in his book Le Dilemme Français (Paris, 1951), pp. 170ff.Google Scholar, relies for his description of the RPF's constitutional program on a report edited by Michel Debré. This report has not been published.
23 On the contrary, the motion on constitutional reform passed at the fourth RPF congress said: “All these points of our program have been the object of declarations and studies of which we have nothing to change. …”
24 Vallon, p. 171, says the President might be elected by the members of Parliament, representatives of the local and departmental councils, and representatives of “economic and intellectual activities.”
25 Le Rassemblement, Oct. 9, 1948.
26 Ibid., Nov. 6, 1948, specifically says that the President “will name and revoke the ministers.”
27 Ibid., Oct. 9, 1948. Capitant's report to the second congress says that the President “must be free to grant or to refuse his signature to the dissolution decree….”
28 Ibid., June 29, 1951.
29 Ibid., June 15, 1951.
30 Ibid., Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 1951.
31 Motion at the second congress.
32 Motion at the third congress. For a brief description of the roles of the chambres d'agriculture, chambres de commerce and chambres des métiers during the Third Republic, see Sharp, W. R., The Government of the French Republic (New York, 1947), pp. 229–235Google Scholar. More up-to-date information on the chambres d'agriculiure can be found in Le Monde, Feb. 11, 1950 and in l'Economie, June 9, 1949. A handful of presidents of Chambers of Commerce and of Chambers of Trade have been members of the Economic Council during the Fourth Republic.
33 Capitant's report to the second congress.
34 Idem. See also de Gaulle's, statement in Le Rassemblement, Oct. 9, 1948Google Scholar.
36 Capitant's report to the second congress.
37 See the motion on general policy and the motion on constitutional reform passed by the National Council, in Le Rassemblement, Nov. 9–15, 1951, and the motion on constitutional reform passed at the fourth congress, ibid., Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 1951.
38 Conseil de la République, Proposition de Résolution, No. 727, Nov. 15, 1951.
39 L'Information Radicale-Socialiste, Oct.–Nov. 1951, pp. 5, 21, 22.
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