ABSTRACT

The transition to the Fifth Republic between 1958 and 1962 offered an equally classic case of institutional change leading to party system change. The new constitution gave governments new safeguards against attack from parliament; it gave the president both new powers, including the right of dissolution and the right to call a referendum, and reinforced power, through the 1962 reform instituting direct presidential elections. The replacement of proportional representation at parliamentary elections by the two-ballot majority system with single-member constituencies, though not part of the constitution, was nevertheless a major institutional change. Polarised pluralism disappeared. But the new party system did not settle down to a pattern as predictable as those of, say, Britain or the Federal Republic of Germany. On the contrary, six different configurations of French parties can be observed since 1958. They may be read in conjunction with Figure 2.2 (Chapter 2, p. 56), which shows the relationship between presidential terms, governments and parliamentary majorities under the Fifth Republic.