‘Hyperpresidentialism’ and the Fifth Republic State Imperative

Abstract

There is a French national predisposition to describe as true in principle what the wide awake realise as unlikely to be true in practice. This is particularly the case of its constitutions, which prescribe norms rather than realities. Couched in abstractions that elevate clarity of aspiration way above vulgar practicalities, Article 1 of the Fifth Republic’s Constitution asserts that ‘France is an indivisible Republic (…)’ an affirmation that is made with all the more conviction because of the divisions which continue to bedevil French politics and society. Out of a desire to attain an undisputed national unity and community that evades its grasp, the French political system has subjected democratic institutions and practices to the stifling constraints of a statism disguised by the seductive appellation of Republic (Levy 2006, Introduction and Conclusion) (I had not anticipated that the title of my book, The One and Indivisible Republic, would be taken literally by some (Hayward 1974)).

‘A state which becomes more and more of a unity will cease to become a state at all. Plurality of numbers is natural in a state; and the farther it moves away from plurality towards unity, the less of a state it becomes and the more … an individual’ (Aristotle, The Politics: Book 2, Ch. 2 p. 56, 1962 edition).