The Idiots Guide to French Politics ?

I wondered if anyone could be so nice as to give me a crash course in French political history from 1958 to present time and French politics today ?

Links to the different political parties would be appreciated as well, preferably in English, however, as my French is rather elementary.

:smok:

 

For a start, Wikipedia gives some valuable information about the 5th Republic and the different parties.

I'll check if any of the parties has it's site or programm in english, but I highly doubt it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_France

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_France

 

Thanks!

Wow! What a fauna. You wouldn't happen to have a breakdown of the seats occupied by the respective parties in the National Assembly and the Senate, would you ( or a link ) ?

I guess this is something of a sidetrack, but I just have to ask. What is the Parti du Plaisir all about ?

 

This is the composition of the National Assembly, following the legislative elections of 2002:



Results in the Presidential elections were following:

First Round:

Chirac(conservative): 19.88 %
Le Pen(far right) : 16.86 %
Jospin(socialist) : 16.18 %

There were a dozen other candidates, but with far smaller result.

Only the 2 candidates with the best result remain for the second round, with following result in 2002:

Chirac: 82.21 %
Le Pen: 17.79 %

 

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That is her party:





The party, founded by "Dancer" Cindy Lee, participated in the legislative elections, winning 0.41 % of voices in it's Paris circonscription, claiming to stand for tolerance, liberty, solidarity....

 

Pretty much what I imagined, yes.

From one thing to another, if Le Pen did so well in the presidental elections, how come his party doesn't seem to be represented in the National Assembly ?

 

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The presidential elections are different from legislative elections.

In the presidential election the whole country can vote for the same candidates.
You vote for your candidate directely.

In the legislative elections, there are 2 rounds like in presidential elections.

The country is divided in different circonscriptions.(For example in my département there are 9 different circonscriptions)
For every circonscription there is one seat in the Assemblée Nationale.

In these circonscriptions the different parties are represented by one candidate of their local branch.
Like in the presidential election, in the first turn, all candidates are represented, and only the 2 with the most voices remain for the second one.

During the last legislative elections in 2002, no candidate of the National Front got the most voices in any of the circonscriptions(Tough many of them were present on the second turn).
That's why that Party is not represented in the Assemblée Nationale, tough it certainly got as many votes as in the presidential election.

This system somewhat favoures parties that are very strong locally, but not very strong on the national level.(like the communist party for example).

 

So, a party can actually have 15-20% of the voters and not a single seat in the National Assembly?

Isn't that a bit ... not democratic?

 

Yes, some bit perhaps....

I would prefer a proportional system like most of Europe has, unfortunately in the past that system did not lead to lasting majorities that's why General De Gaulle introduced the actual system.
Many think that that system gives the best compromise between the 3 main goals of electoral systems:

-Make sure that the will of most possible people is respected

- make sure that responsible/intelligent people are elected

-provide stable/working majorities

But generally, in France, there is I think a deep gap between the people and the national assembly.(As could for example be seen during the European constitution referendum, where 56% of the people rejected it, but some 85-90% of the Assembly would have adopted it.)

 

When you guys figure this onwe out perhaps you could figure out French Canadian politics?

Since most of them refused to fight the nazis to free France

Libre' Quebec Libre'

lol

The Mutant Poodle

 

No, most of them refused conscription.
When war began they had been promised there would be no conscription.
Later, the canadian governement made a referendum and asked the people to free it from it's non conscription promise.
In that referendum, a majority of Quebecois voted no, while the rest of the country majoritarily said yes.

This is easily explained by the fact that french-canadians did not want to be forced to fight(as they saw it) for the british crown and british/empire interests.
Hardly surprising if you look at the history of Québec....

Note: This did not prevent thousands of french-canadians to die in WW2, including in the liberation of France.(Régiment Mont-Royal, Régiment de Maisoneuve, Régiment de la Chaudi?re....)