ABSTRACT
The Third Republic has been seen as the type of a ‘parliamentary, rather than cabinet, sovereignty’, its governments—the creatures of a fickle legislature. The constitution of 1875 gave the executive considerable freedom of action in foreign affairs. The absence of an established parliamentary tradition of control meant that the Daladier administration of 1938, was free to pursue its foreign policy in a manner which, at times, savoured of discredited secret diplomacy. The ministry could rely upon a fair measure of agreement with its declared aims, namely, a peaceful settlement of the Sudeten German dispute, paving the way for a European detente. The enormous relief with which the public greeted the Munich Agreement gave him a huge, though momentary, popularity. The British leader renewed the undertaking given in June but did not take the French into his confidence as to the date of the election, although the Germans were told that the date was 14 November.
