Cohabitation (government)
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Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the President and the Prime Minister come from different political parties. Adherents say that it prevents the stagnation of "split majorities" that can occur in presidential systems, a concern especially relevant to the French in light of the instability and political paralysis of previous French Republics. Critics argue that it can also result in massive political tension in times of crisis, as seen in Sri Lanka during the later months of 2003.
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[edit] History
[edit] France
[edit] Origins
Cohabitation was a product of the French Fifth Republic, albeit an unintended one. This constitution brought together a potent President position with manifold executive powers, and a strong parliament with a Prime Minister. The president's task was primarily to end deadlock and act decisively to avoid the stagnation prevalent under the French Fourth Republic; the Prime Minister, similarly, was to "direct the work of government", providing a strong leadership to the legislative branch and to help overcome partisan squabbles.
Since 1962, French Presidents are selected by popular vote, replacing the electoral college, which was only used once. This change was intended to give Fifth Republic Presidents more power than they might have had under the original constitution; while still seen as the symbol and embodiment of the nation, the President also now was given a popular mandate. Of course, the majority party of the Assembly retained power as well, but since the popularly-elected President appointed the Prime Minister, the former was seen as having the upper-hand in any conflict between executive and legislature. Furthermore, the imbalance is further illustrated by the fact that the President of the Fifth Republic can dissolve the Assembly at any time (but not more than once a year), whereas the legislature has no powers of removal against the President.
The sole caveat to this position of presidential pre-eminence was the fact that the President's selection to the premiership required legislative approval. This was not a problem whilst the legislative majority was aligned with the President, and indeed, de Gaulle, who was responsible for inspiring much of the Constitution, never envisioned that such a conflict could exist; to him the French people should never have so little sense to allow such a situation. But because of the fact that the President was elected to seven year terms, and the Assembly to five-year terms, it was almost inevitable that such a situation would someday arise. Political scientists regarded it as a flaw in the constitution that had the potential to bring down the Fifth Republic.
The first "near miss" with cohabitation occurred with the election of Socialist President Francois Mitterand in 1981. A coalition of the right controlled the Assembly at the time. Almost immediately, Mitterand exercised his authority to call Assembly elections, and, in a show of common sense, the electorate returned an Assembly with an absolute majority of Socialists, ending the presumed crisis. However, when Assembly elections were held, as required, five years later, the Socialists lost their majority to the right, precipitating the first experiment in cohabitation.
[edit] Cohabitation in practice
There have been only a few periods of cohabitation, but each is notable for illustrating the oscillation of powers between the President and Prime Minister.
[edit] Mitterand-Chirac Period
- After the 1986 Assembly elections, Mitterand was forced to nominate as a Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, the leader of the RPR, the largest party in the majority coalition. Throughout the cohabitation between Mitterrand and Chirac, the President focused on his foreign duties and allowed Chirac to control internal affairs. Since Mitterrand was distanced from these policies, Chirac began to reverse many of Mitterrand’s reforms by lowering taxes and privatising many national enterprises. This lasted for 2 years until 1988 when the newly-reelected François Mitterrand called for new legislative elections that were won by a leftist majority, which lasted five years.
[edit] Mitterand-Balladur Period
- In 1993 President Mitterrand found himself in a similar position. Once again he was forced to appoint the opposition leader, this time, Edouard Balladur, to the post of Prime Minister. Balladur maintained this post through the cohabitation until May 18, 1995.
[edit] Chirac-Jospin Period
- In 1995, rightist leader Jacques Chirac succeeded Mitterrand as President and since the majority in the National assembly was from his side, he was able to appoint his fellow RPR member Alain Juppé as his Prime Minster, ending cohabitation by a change in the presidency. This alignment of President and Assembly should have lasted until at least the normally-scheduled 1998 Assembly elections.
- However, in 1997, President Chirac made the ill-fated strategic decision to dissolve parliament and call for early legislative elections. This plan backfired when the French electorate turned back to the leftists and tossed out the rightest Assembly majority. Chirac was forced to appoint Socialist Lionel Jospin to the premiership. Jospin remained Prime Minister until the elections of 2002, making this third term of cohabitation the longest ever—five years. Chirac called this a state of ‘Paralysis’, and found it particularly difficult to arrange campaign activities for the National Assembly.
- With Jospin holding the premiership, Chirac’s political influence was constrained and he had no say over certain major reforms being instituted by the left-wing majority. This included the 1998 legislation to shorten the working week from 39 to 35 hours, which came into effect in 2000.
[edit] Observations
- The French Fifth Republic usually operates under a Presidential system, but when in cohabitation, this effectively changes to a Parliamentary system, giving more power to the Prime Minister, and limiting the President to the control of foreign policy and defence.
- A common problem during cohabitation is that each leader wants his or her own policies to be carried out so that the public are positive towards their strategies and will be elected when the time comes. Because each party is in competition, there is little room for progression since the friction between both sides hold each other back. Whilst leaders of the same political spectrum help each other in decision making when in power simultaneously, cohabitation leads to a decline in national authority and fighting makes the country look insecure from a global perspective.
- It has been recognised by the government that periods of cohabitation restrict the country’s economic progression and the stability of society, with the ‘left-wing government and a right-wing president virtually cancelling each other out.’ (Shiloh, T, 2002)
- Although originally believed to be improbable, France was governed under a cohabitation of leaders for almost half the period from 1986-2006. It seems apparent that the French people no longer fear the prospect of having two parties share power.
[edit] Future Prospects
In 2004, with the support of President Chirac, the term of the President of the Fifth Republic was shortened from seven years to five years. Because of this, cohabitation will almost certainly be much more rare. Unless French voters exercise "ticket splitting", cohabitation should not occur unless a President feels compelled to call for Assembly elections mid-term, a prospect which cannot be ruled out.
[edit] Other countries
The theory of cohabitation is not limited to France, as a coexistence between the head of state and its parliamentary majority is possible in any country, for example between the Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Prime Minister. As the PM is elected by the people, it is their right to run the country as a democracy allows this, but differing opinions between the two leaders is possible.
[edit] Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan politics for several years witnessed a bitter struggle between the President and the Prime Minister, belonging to different parties and elected separately, over the negotiations with the LTTE to resolve the longstanding ethnic conflict.
[edit] Bibliography
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3256649.stm
- Raymond, G (2000) The President: Still a ‘Republican Monarch’? in Raymond, G (ed) Structures of Power in Modern France, Macmillan Press, Basingstoke
- Sartori, G (1997) Comparative Constitutional Engineering, 2nd Ed., Macmillan Press, Basingstoke
- Elgie, R (2003) Political Institutions in Contemporary France, OUP, Oxford
- Knapp, A and Wright, V (2001) The Government and Politics of France, 4th Ed., Routledge, London
http://www.elysee.fr [Last accessed 16.02.06] http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr [Last accessed 17.02.06] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohabitation_government 29 [Last accessed 17.02.06]
Cohendet, M. (2005) ‘The French Cohabitation, A Useful Experiment?’ CEFC:China
People’s Daily Online, (2002) ‘France Bids Farewell to Right-Left 'Cohabitation’. Monday, June 17, 2002, http://english.people.com.cn/200206/17/eng20020617_98010.shtml [Last accessed 16.02.06]
Shiloh, T. (2002) ‘Muted reaction as France heads right’. Monday, June 10, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2036951.stm [Last accessed 15.02.06]
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