Who rules in France? What factors determine the actual powers of the President and Prime minister of France?

The government composed of the Prime minister and his ministers ‘determines and conducts the policy of the nation’ and is ‘responsible before the parliament’. Special recognition is accorded to the Prime minister. He directs the action of the government and is responsible for national defence. He assures the execution of the laws and exercises rule making power (Articles 20 and 21). He determines the composition of his cabinet, presides over its meetings and directs the administrative services. He defends his policy before parliament, answers questions addressed to him by the members of parliament, states the overall program of the government in special programmatic declarations and in general governs while it enjoys the confidence of a majority in the National assembly.

However William Saffran argues that ‘Although the constitution makes the president chief of state and entrusts the government to the premier, the distinction between heading a state and leading a government is not as precise as it might be’. He has a valid point, indeed, some of the presidential powers may be overlapping, even conflicting with those of the Prime ministers.

The particular voting system adopted by a system may affect the outcome of the election and therefore determine the power given to a particular party. First-past-the-post voting was introduced by General de Gaulle as an antidote to the instability which had plagued the governments of the Fourth Republic and which had been largely due to proportional representation. The proportional system was brought back for the 1986 general election by the Socialist government - which was seeking better representation for small political groups The 1986 cohabitation brought a new stage of party development in the temporary non-coincidence of the presidential and parliamentary majorities. The President promised to stay in office unless the new majority blocked his constitutional powers. Two years later the first past the post system was reinstated and has remained in tact ever since. However, this cohabitation must have changed the power balance between the President and Prime minister.

The President used to be more far more dominant prior to this cohabitation but this power sharing changed things. William Saffran stated that ‘In 1988 much of the Presidents power was restored yet his relationship to the Premier has remained ambiguous considering both his policy disagreements with Rocard and the fact that the Prime minister appears to on occasion enjoy greater public confidence’.The second cohabitation began in 1993 when President Mitterrand chose Edouard Balladur as Prime Minister after the March 1993 general election had given the RPR-UDF alliance a strong majority. This cohabitation ended with Jacques Chirac's election as President in 1995. Executive and legislative powers were once more in the hands of a single political movement and Alain Juppé was appointed Prime Minister.The third cohabitation began in June 1997, when the general election which followed Jacques Chirac's April dissolution of the National Assembly resulted in a left-wing majority and the President appointed Lionel Jospin, the Socialist party leader, Prime Minister. The roles of Left and Right were reversed, compared with the two previous cohabitations, but this new modus operandi clearly seems increasingly to satisfy what has become a volatile electorate. All in all, the three cohabitations have shown that the institutions of the Fifth Republic work satisfactorily and guarantee a measure of political stability in France but one must consider that cohabitation governments in theory, vastly alter the political situaation of the President and Prime minister

 This new found strength acquired the Prime minister may be seen as unpredicted as been as ‘the framers of the constitution put Parliament in its largely subordinate place’. The constitutions put many provisions upon parliament which made parliament seem inferior to the executive....

Although, one can establish that within cohabitation government, the President and Prime minister can have their power altered and that the constitution of France delegates a lot of power, one must also consider other factors that can change the power balance in France. According to Françoise Dreyfus ‘ political control is exercised on the one hand by citizens in presidential and parliamentary-or even local- elections and on the other hand by the National Assembly over the Executive’. Dreyfus also recognises that there are legal restrictions by which ‘the state is made to respect the law’. Laws can be submitted to different bodies such as the Constitutional council, the council of state, The European commission and the European court of justice. Another restraint on the powers of the President and Prime minister are extra-institutional controls. They are not laid down in documents but can be in the form of interest and pressure groups. The media also has a lot of influence when it comes to the policy and power. The case of the Le Monde newspaper is significant as it played a major role in the resignation of the defence secretary after the Rainbow warrior fiasco of 1985.