French Semi-presidential Issue Research

Since 1789 France has experienced five republics, two empires, and two restorations, and 14 constitutions were established during this period.France is worthy of the name of constitutional test field. Until 1958 the Fifth Republic of France was established to implement Semi-presidentialism, the political situation of France has become stable and the democratic political system can be maximized. The establishment of the French Semi-presidentialism not only brings stability to France, but also provides the third alternative constitutional system to new democracies which were established in the late 70 s. Since the establishment of the French semi-presidentialism, it has been criticized, and many institutional loopholes also exposed one by one during the operating procedure and European debt crisis impact the economics of France. There are many demands to reforming the political system, even some people appeal to establish the Sixth Republic. But according to the current degree of amending the Constitution and the reforming of France, it will maintain a semi-presidentialism regime. Although the regime is tend to the presidentialism, the constitutional framework remains intact. The French semi-presidentialism has experienced test for more than half a century, but it still operates normally and regulates the political life of French people. Although many problems are exposed during this period, the flexibility of the regime carry it through every adversity. The reason why semi-presidentialism can run smoothly in France is that the semi-presidentialism adapts to the needs of society and national conditions of France. The French Third Republic implemented parliamentarism, but the power of parliament is too large and as a result the government lost the initiative. France is a multi-party country, there is not party can swept into power in the election of parliament, as a consequence the establishment of stable cabinet became a luxury during the period of the Third Republic. After World War II, France still adopt the traditional parliamentarism. Because The Forth Republic inherited the constitutional concept of the Third Republic, the parliament overtoped the government, Parliament at this time even had more authority than the Third Republic parliament. Moreover, the institution was still not integrated with the ecology of French party. Consequently, alternations of government occurred, even ministerial crisis occurred several times. Algeria crisis in 1958 resulted in the exposure of defects of the design of institutions for the Fourth Republic. There were not institutions and regimes could cope with the political crisis timely and effectively. Until the establishment of the Fifth Republic, a series of institution design of semi-presidentialism not only balance the relationship between the legislative power and the executive power, but also let the French president has enough power and respond to the changing domestic and international situation after World War II, and brought stability to France. It is not enough to judge a institution by evaluating the power distribution. It should also analyze whether the institution adapt the national conditions and whether it can bring political stability to the country.At first this paper discusses the relevant concepts of semi-presidentialism, The paper analyzes the connotation,characteristics and types of semi presidential system and discriminate the relevant concepts. The third chapter analyzes established conditions of semi-presidentialism, which are discoursed in terms of politic, economy and culture. The fourth and fifth parts separately discourse the constitutional regulation and constitutional operation in detail. The institution of France is so flexible that the power center can be changed selectively according to the actual demand during operation process. As a result,the political standoff and political crisis can be avoided. At last, the paper evaluates the influence of semi-presidentialism to French institution and the dilemma of semi-presidentialism, and analyzes the development trend of French semi-presidentialism.