In Defense of the Fourth Republic
SCHAPIRO, J. SALWYN
In Defense of the Fourth Republic The French Political System. By Maurice Duverger. Chicago. 227 pp. $4.00. Reviewed by J. Salwyn Schapiro Professor emeritus of history, CCNY; author,...
...Their private opinions concern the Government little...
...Since 1791, when parliamentary government was introduced, France has never been ruled by a single freely elected party of like-minded members, representing a majority of Parliament or the people...
...For long, population had been virtually stationary...
...author, "Condorcet" "The World in Crisis" IT IS a satire in the best French manner that an existing system should collapse just when it is hailed by an apologia pro vita sua...
...A "miracle" of production followed...
...The multiplicity of parties, according to Duverger, explains "the defects of the French system of government far more than the nature of the political institutions proper...
...To discourage the constant fall of Ministries, the Constitution of the Fourth Republic did provide a method for dissolving the National Assembly before the expiration of its term of office...
...The French, (on the contrary, regard Parliament primarily as a national forum, where many opinions find full expression and where the members are free to act in accordance with their opinions...
...an advisory council, to the Lords...
...Why, then, did not the French Government work as well as the British...
...Let us look at the record of the Fourth Republic...
...After the Second World War an extraordinary reconstruction took place, which quickly and efficiently put France in excellent shape...
...On the Left were the Radicals and Socialists, both much the same as under the Third Republic, only more so...
...It is denounced as weak, imperialist, sterile, evasive, unfair in taxation, and what not...
...With this record, why must France be "saved" by a Joan of Arc in a Citroen...
...now a veritable "demographic revolution" has taken place with the marked rise in the birth rate...
...Apart from an analysis of the constitutional system, Duverger gives an excellent description of the extra-constitutional forces that profoundly influenced the Government, such as organized business, labor unions, the press and the intellectuals...
...The Republic joined NATO and led in the movement to unify Western Europe through the establishment of the Coal and Steel, Atomic and Economic Communities...
...and a Ministry responsible to the lower house...
...With the advantage of hindsight, it is now possible to make a post-mortem examination of the political system of the Fourth Republic as described here...
...His book, dealing with the structure and operations of the Government of the Fourth Republic, is brief yet comprehensive, and his judgments are clear, measured and penetrating...
...France conceives political relations," observes Duverger, "as a dialogue between citizens and the state" and regards "defiance and suspicion of the state as the best guarantee of individual freedom...
...Important industries became highly mechanized, and productivity in some instances rose as high as in America, resulting in a remarkable increase in real wages...
...With the appearance of this book the Fourth French Republic, with which it deals, went out of existence...
...And the multiplicity of parties produced a worse situation in France than elsewhere on the Continent, where the system has managed to maintain a fair degree of ministerial stability...
...Does it reveal the seeds of its own destruction...
...As a consequence, the average Frenchman regarded the government not as the true representative of the people but as the tool of minority interests—hence the enemy, actual or potential, of individual freedom...
...Recently, new progressive income arid capital-gains tax laws were passed, designed to make the system of taxation more equitable...
...As a consequence, the working of the multi-party system became even more difficult in a National Assembly operating on three-quarters of its capacity...
...And between opinion and action the French distance is short...
...Altogether it is a good example of a kind of study in which French scholars excel: a compact, illuminating exposition of a great and difficult subject...
...It has been as truly characteristic of the historical development of France as the two-party system has been of Britain...
...But it was a clumsy method that was used only once, and then ineffectively...
...Two new parties appeared: The Communists on the extreme Left and the MRP (French initials for "Popular Republican Movement") in the Center...
...Another factor in the situation is the French conception of the very nature of Parliamentary government, which is in striking contrast to that of the British, who conceive Parliament realistically as a legislative machine for the making of laws...
...In Defense of the Fourth Republic The French Political System...
...It provided for woman suffrage...
...On all sides, both in France and elsewhere, fulminations are now heard against the Fourth Republic...
...The author, Maurice Duverger, is professor of law and political science at the University of Paris...
...The welfare state was established through drastic social and economic reforms...
...The multi-party system was not improvised...
...Debate in the Commons is full and free, but the passage of a Government bill is predetermined because the rigid discipline of the majority party compels uniform action by its members voting for the measure...
...an all-powerful National Assembly, to the Commons...
...It repudiated colonialism by granting equal citizenship to the peoples in the overseas territories...
...Under the Fourth Republic, the parties in the main were similar to those under the Third...
...It was Catholic in the sense that its policies were "inspired by Christian ideals...
...It took definite steps to abolish colonialism by establishing equal citizenship for all under the French flag, by giving independence to Morocco and Tunisia, and by granting a considerable degree of autonomy to Algeria...
...But the MRP was not clerical, as it did not seek special privileges for the Catholic Church: on the contrary, it espoused religious toleration and upheld the law separating church and state...
...The Right was reactionary, but instead of monarchists there were now fascists and near-fascists...
...Though the largest single party, the Communists, since 1947, have been totally excluded from the Government...
...From any democratic viewpoint, the Constitution was a model document...
...By ceding the Saar to Germany, it created good relations with France's historic enemy...
...It created a system of government modeled on the British: a ceremonial Presidency corresponding to the Crown...
...Does it show a failure of the founding fathers of the Constitution of 1946 to provide built-in safeguards for the preservation of their handiwork...
...Bad as it is, ministerial instability is made to appear as the sum of all political evils...
...The same Parliamentary system in France did not, as in Britain, produce ministerial stability...
...The MRP was something new in the history of French Republicanism: a fairly large conservative party dedicated to the maintenance of the existing order, as established by the Fourth Republic...
...In France there were cleavages within each of the many parties (with the exception of the Communists and Socialists), resulting in cleavages within the Ministry itself...
...The book contains valuable appendices, notably the text of the Constitution and a table of election results...
...It reasserted the old, individualistic Rights of Man and proclaimed in no uncertain terms the new social rights...
...Under the democratic Third and Fourth Republics, Parliamentary majorities consisted of fortuitous combinations of minority groups, divergent in aims and often mutually hostile...
...The various groups reflect politically the many deep divisions in the nation, a heritage of the undigested French Revolution that split the people into bitterly hostile factions...
Vol. 41 • October 1958 • No. 32
