ABSTRACT
The conception of republicanism that was traditional in France from the 1870s until 1958 rested on parliamentary supremacy. The Parliament, as the main expression of popular sovereignty, occupied the central role in the French decision-making structure. Parliament was supreme in that it had, at least in a formal sense, a monopoly on legislative power; it elected the president of the Republic; it invested and dismissed prime ministers and cabinets at will; it controlled the budgetary process; it regularly exercised its power of surveillance over the executive by means of questions, interpellations, and votes of censure; and it was the absolute master over special sessions, internal parliamentary rules, and the dissolution of the Assembly prior to the calling of new elections. Parliamentary legislative monopoly, in principle, did not permit “delegated legislation” (that is, the granting of power to the executive to issue decrees), and parliamentary decisions were not subject to judicial review.
