How France is Governed

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1905, Page 6

How France is Governed

In view of recent events in France the following particulars) regarding the Government of the country and the centralisation of power in the hands of the Ministry will be of interest -.—France, like the United States, is a Republic with a written constitution. But the constitutions of the two countries differ widely from each other. No provision of the constitution of the United Stales can be changed until the amendment by which it is proposed to change it has been submitted to the people, auld 'approved by the legislatures of tnreefourtlhs of the States. The constitution of France, on the- other hand, is divided into two kinds of laws, one called ' constitutional,' the other called ' organic' The ' organic ' laws may be altereS in the same way that other laws may be altered— that is, by a simple act of the parliament. For example, the French Senate, which exists only in virtue of the pro-visions of an 'organic' law, may have the most radical changes made in it, or may be practically abolished, by the two houses of parliament . sitting and voting exactly as they would sit and vote if considering a measure of the utmost triviality. The 1 constitutional ' laws may be changed almost as easily. When the Senate and the House of Deputies meet -together they constitute the national assembly ; and the national assembly has power and authority, by a mere majority vote, to make any changes in the government it pleases without in any way referring the matter to the people. If it wanted to, it could meet to-morrow and abolish the Republic and set up an absolute Monarchy. The inference which would naturally be drawn from these statements is that the French Parliament almost monopolises the power of the French Government instead of being checked and balanced by the executive and judicial departments, as the Congress of the United States is ; anid a close inspection of French institutions amply verifies this inference. The government of France has been aptly described as ' government by mass-meetimg, 1 aad a tumultuous and disorderly massmeeting it sometimes is. The Titular Chief of France is the President. He is elected, not by the people, but by a majority vote of the two Houses of Parliament, meeting together as a national assembly. His term is seven years. He cannot veto legislation, but may require the Houses to reconsider it. He has the legal power to appoint and remove all public officials, including ambassadors and Cabinet Ministers. He c^n adjourn the Chambers for any period of less than a month, can dissolve them after they have sat five months, and, with the consent) of the Senate, can dissolve the Chamber of Deputies at any time. But) extensive as is the nominal authority of the French President, his real authority usually is extremely limited. He has only a Hobson's choke in the selection of his Cabinet. He may select whom he wishes, provided he selects whom the Chamber of Deputies wishes. His Ministers are responsible for i/heir acts, not to him but to the Chambers. His appointments to all offices, no matter how important or how trifling, must be countersigned by his Ministers 1 , and are, therefore, really the appointments of the Ministers. The French Cabinet has at present twelve memlbers, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of War, the Minister of Marine, the Minister of Colonies, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior and of Public Worship, the Minister of Public Instruction, Religion, and the Fine Arts, the Minister of Public Works, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. The natures of the administrative duties of most of the Ministers arc indicated by their official titles. In France, as in Fn*land, the Ministers, must resign their places when they cannot command a maiority tor their policies in the more nodular branch of Parliament, which is, in Frarre, Ihe Chamber of Deputies. The President then sends for the leader of the party or group of parties which has become dominant, and asks him to form a Cabinet. This leader, who now becomes Prime Minister, selects for 'himself any office he pleases. M. Combes, the last Prime Minister, was Minister of the Interior and of Public Worship. The French Parliament is composed of two Chambers, the Senate anfl the House of Deputies. The framers of the constitution expected the two Houses to have equal powers, but the Chamber of Depluties dominates the whole Government, Senate included. In many respects the mast important office in the French Government is the Ministry of the. In-

terior. This Ministry assumes all the duties not assigned to any otter department and under the control, of course, of the omnipotent Chamber of Deputies— superintends the local governments of the departments, the arrondislsements, the cantons, and the 'communes iftto which the country is arbitrarily divided. For there is almost no &uch thing as local selt-gov eminent in France. All officials 1 , from the Prefect, who is Superintettdent of Schools, Chief of Police, and Treasurer of the Department, to the Mayor of the smallest commune— and there are 36,170 communes, rural and urban— are responsible to, and a large majority of them are appointed by, the ministerial bureaucrats, mainly by the Ministry of the Interior, at Pans. Nowhere in the world is government more centralised. The judges of the courts, including even the cantonal justices of the peace, are appointed by the Minister of Justice, acting, of course, in the name of the President. Special ' administrative courts ' exist to try cases in whkh the Government is 'directly or indirectly a party. The ordinary courts, of which the highest isi the Court of Cassation in Paris, try only cases affecting the rights and relations of individuals.