Forms of governments (french)
Forms of governments
France's government type is a democratic semi-presidential republic. In political science, a republican form of government simply means that a country does not have a monarch (king, queen, prince, etc.) as a head of state. Throughout the French history, France's form of government has been contested and large sections of the society preferred a return to the monarchy.
One can identify three basic ways to organize power in a democracy: presidential, parliamentary, and semi-presidential systems. In a parliamentary system, executive and legislative powers are merged through the legislature's election of the head of government, the prime minister. In a presidential system, these powers are separate because voters elect separately the president, the head of the executive branch, and the legislature.
The French system is characterized by the strong role of the president of the republic. The office of the president is unique in that it has the authority to bypass the parliament by submitting referenda directly to the people and even to dissolve the parliament altogether. The president presides over the Council of Ministers and other high councils, signs the more important decrees, appoints high civil servants and judges, negotiates and ratifies treaties, and is commander in chief of the armed forces. Under exceptional circumstances, Article 16 allows for the concentration of all the powers of the state in the presidency. This article, enforced from April to September 1961 during the Algerian crisis, has received sharp criticism, having proved to be of limited practical value because of the stringent conditions attached to its operation.
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