ABSTRACT
The new constitutional arrangements and the new political situation disconcerted parliamentarians of all parties. Parliament was frustrated and impotent because the parties were unable to express their real views. The consequence was frustration all round, expressed in mass walkouts by the opposition deputies in September 1961 and June 1962. The government now began to take more pains to organize its relations with its parliamentary followers. They could not amend in detail policies they broadly accepted, because the government could stop them with a package vote. For the all-out opponents of the government the problem was different. Thus the opposition parties had little political opportunity to persuade the majority, and little procedural opportunity to arouse public opinion against it through Parliament; and they were disconcerted by the new situation in which majorities never split and governments never fell. The improvement of Parliament’s legislative performance was no doubt partly due to Debrc’s constitutional straitjacket.
