ABSTRACT
A Minister's case for change has to be related to some principles. If he is to have the support of a political party, then he probably has to base his case upon a recognizable ideology acceptable to a large group of representatives. The political ideology of the largest Party in the Chamber of Deputies in 1957 was Marxism-Leninism which was viewed by the Catholic Right as a rival system of thought comparable to a competing religion. Various politicians were anxious to claim credit for parts of the bill and to assert their status as representatives of various respectable national traditions. A piece of legislation produced in 1959 was called the Debre law, after the Prime Minister whose majority enacted it, and it dealt with the relationship between the State and the private schools. The issue is a particularly instructive one to examine, since it introduced a pressing financial problem into an already embittered national debate.
