Some Political Aspects of the French Fifth Republic

Abstract

HE DE GAULLE GOVERNMENT that was invested June 1, 1958, received on the following day from the National Assembly of the Fourth Republic, and on June 3 from the Council of the Republic, authorization to prepare a draft constitution for the Fifth Republic. Practically all of the final draft was contained in a speech delivered in Bayeaux on June 16, 1946, when General de Gaulle condemned the Fourth Republic and the way in which its Constitution reduced presidential power. In addition to requesting a clear separation of powers, De Gaulle asked the right of a president to choose and dismiss his ministers; paradoxically, he also contended that they should be responsible to the National Assembly. Finally, he recommended that a president be endowed with the power to dissolve the Assembly and ability to submit to popular referenda government-sponsored bills defeated by the same body.' The final draft of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, having been adopted by the De Gaulle government on September 3, 1958, was submitted to a referendum on September 28, 1958, which was participated in by Metropolitan France, Algeria, and the Overseas Departments and Territories. The questions asked by the referendum had not the same precise meaning in the metropole and the overseas areas. It asked, in effect, of the metropolitan French: (1) Do you approve the Constitution proposed by the government of the Republic and the new organization of public powers? (2) Are you willing to confirm your belief in General de Gaulle's ability to solve the Algerian problem with a policy that is presently undefined? (3) Are you willing to express your confidence in the General's Constitution, thereby assuring him that you wish him to remain as chief of state, and if you vote against the Constitution and the General returns to Colombey-les-deux-eglises, who will then take his place in the Matignon? (4) Are you in favor of a new Franco-African Community? Thus, for the French of the metropole, the referendum generally defined the nature of what the oui voter could subsequently expect, offering the non voter the alternative of committing the society to subsequent possibilities that ranged from anarchy to military dictatorship. Finally, the referendum asked the Moslems of Algeria if they wished to be French and if the Africans of the South Sahara were willing to enter an African-Franco Community, the Overseas Territories being given the option of forming a new Community with France, or of breaking every tie with her. The Constitution was endorsed by 83 per cent of those who voted, accepted everywhere except in the African Territory of Guinea, which thereby declined