The République Française is a unitary dual executive republic which ranks among the oldest and most powerful nations in the world, as well as one of the largest nations in Western Europe by both population and territory.
History of France
It should be self-evident that this is merely a lay summary in the broadest strokes.
While there are archaeological traces of proto-human habitation in the region of France reaching as far back as 1.57 million years, the history of France as we know it begins with the Gauls, a group of Celtic tribes which emerged around the 5th century BCE and settled throughout the region of modern-day France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and southern Germany. The Gaulish tribes fought a series of wars against the rival Roman civilization throughout the fourth through first centuries BCE, culminating in Julius Caesar's successful conquest of Gaul as a whole in the Gallic Wars.
While undeniably brutal in its execution, the Roman conquest of Gaul brought peace, stability, and relative prosperity to the region for several centuries. By the late third century, however, various Germanic barbarian tribes began to make themselves known, sometimes as border raiders and sometimes as allies of convenience with Rome against each other. A major Vandal invasion in 406 resulted in considerable devastation throughout the region and a decisive collapse of Roman authority, and Gaul subsequently fell under the rule of the ascendant Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths.
By 486 the Franks had defeated the last vestiges of Roman authority in Gaul, forging the Merovingian Dynasty and Francia -- the "Kingdom of the Franks".
Francia
While more of a loose feudal agglomeration than a truly unified nation, Francia quickly became the dominant post-Roman state of Western Europe as the Merovingians defeated rival Germanic tribes and then pushed past the borders of Gaul back into Germania. Yet over the following centuries of essentially uncontested rule, the Merovingian kings were slowly reduced to little more than ceremonial figureheads, with actual power increasingly falling to the mayor of the palace as the chief of the royal household and the dux Francorum as military second-in-command. Dagobert I (629-639) appears to have been the last king to wield significant power, although the Merovingians retained their nominal position until Childeric III (743-751) was formally deposed by Pope Zachary and Pepin the Short (751-768) was crowned as the first king of the new Carolingian Dynasty.
Pepin's son Charlemagne gained the additional title of "King of the Lombards" by conquering Italy and then was also crowned as Imperator Romanorum by Pope Leo III.
West Francia
In 843, the Treaty of Verdun resolved a three year civil war between Charlemagne's grandsons by dividing the Frankish Empire into three individual kingdoms: Francia Media (middle), Francia Orientalis (east), and Francia Occidentalis (west). Francia Occidentalis consisted of all Frankish lands west of the Rhône River, including most of modern-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, and portions of northern Spain (as far as Barcelona). It did not include Brittany, which at that time was a semi-independent vassal state of the Frankish Empire. Louis the Pious had in fact already divided the Empire between his sons in this exact manner prior to his death, following the Frankish tradition of divisible inheritance. However, the eldest son Lothair sought to assert his primacy as Emperor and reduce his brothers to vassals. They in turn rejected his claim of suzerainty and declared war upon him until he was defeated and forced to settle. Subsequent treaties
Government of France
The national government of the Cinquième République is divided into executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. Unlike the American system, the branches are not coequal in principle; the executive branch is considered to stand above the legislative and judicial.
Executive
Executive power is divided between the elected Président de la République française and the appointed Gouvernement de la République française, which is led by the Premier ministre français; the Presiden is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but the Prime Minister is the head of government.
- The Président is directly elected by the French people for a five-year term, and may be re-elected for one additional term.
- The Premier ministre is selected by the President with the assent of the Assemblée nationale (see below).
- The senior and junior ministers of the government are selected by the Premier ministre with the approval of the President.
- Government officials and staffers below the level of minister are typically career civil servants.
Legislative
The Parlement français is the bicameral legislature of France, consisting of the Sénat and the Assemblée nationale.
- The Senat has 348 senateurs, who are elected by the local councils to six-year terms, staggered so that half the seats are elected every three years. It meets in the Palais du Luxembourg.
- The Assemblée nationale has 577 deputies, who are directly elected to five-year terms. It meets in the Palais Bourbon.
- The Congrès du Parlement français is the combined body of both houses, assembled to vote on revisions to the Constitution de la Cinquième République or to be formally addressed by the President. It meets in the Château de Versailles.
The government typically reflects the current majority in the Assemblée.The two chambers are otherwise equal and must both pass a bill in the same terms for it to become law, although the Senat is considered the "upper" house due to its smaller size and generally older membership. If they are deadlocked, a Commission Mixte Paritaire (CMP) of seven members from each chamber is invoked by the government to reconcile the versions, and if this fails the version of the Assemblée nationale may be passed. Historically, about 70% of laws have been passed by adoption of matching bills, 20% by CMP reconciliation, and 10% by unreconciled passage.
Judiciary
The French court system is divided into two branches: the ordre judiciaire handles cases of private law, i.e. criminal prosecutions and civil disputes, while the ordre administratif handles cases involving public law, i.e. disputes between individuals and the government. The division of responsibilities means that there are four distinct top-level courts rather than a single supreme court:
- Le Cour de cassation is the court of last resort for all cases in the ordre judiciaire. It is located in the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité in Paris
- is the court of last resort for cases in the ordre adoption, and also acts as an advisory body to the government.
- is a specialized court of last resort rules on cases where jurisdiction is disputed.
Organization of France
France is divided into eighteen régions, of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (i.e. in continental Europe) and the other five are régions d'outre-mer. The thirteen metropolitan régions are further subdivided into ninety-six départements, whereas the régions d'outre-mer consist of one department each. Because of this, the latter are sometimes called Départements et régions d'outre-mer. The d´partments directly replaced the provinces of the Ancien R&eaute;gime from 1790 onwards, with the réegions over them established by the Law of Decentralisation in 1982. Within the d´partments are the communes, which are equivalent to incorporated municipalities or civil townships in other nations.
The term "collectivité territoriale" refers generically to administrative divisions of France which have their own recognized local authority, i.e. the régions, d´partments, and communes (or their equivalents in areas under special governance). A d´partment is further subdivided into arrondissements and most communes are grouped into intercommunal structures: communaut&eacent;s urbaines, communautés d'agglomération, communautés de communes, or syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle. However, these are not collectivités territoriale and do not possess any independent authority in their own right.
As established by the Law of Decentralisation, each région has both an appointed préfect from the Ministry of the Interior, and an elected conseil régional. Similarly, each département has its own préfect and elected conseil départemental. The préfect of the région is ex officio also the préfect of the départment in which the regional préfecture is located, although the départmental prefecture as a whole remains officially distinct from the r&ecute;gional prefecture. Whether regional or departmental, the préfect is the local representative of the national government, and thus bears responsibility for the local management of national services and the exercise of national powers at the local level.
The préfecture of each régional préfect is generally situated in the largest and most important city within the région, designated the chef-lieu of the region, but more commonly simply called (also) the préfecture. The préfecture of a départment is typically located in the centremost city of the départment, with the traditional requirement being that the préfect should be able to reach any place in his départment within a day's travel on horseback.
In addition, France has five collectivités d'outre-mer, which are equivalent administrative divisions with semi-autonomous status per the constitutional reform of 2003, and one collectivité d'outre-mer à statut particulier, which is governed by special treaty terms. Finally, there is one territoire d'outre-mer which has not been granted région or collectivités status because it has no permanent inhabitants.
- Régions de la Métropole
- Île de France
- Centre-Val de Loire
- Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
- Normandie
- Hauts-de-France
- Grand Est
- Pays de la Loire
- Bretagne
- Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Occitanie
- Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
- Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Corse
- Départements et régions d'outre-mer
- Guyane
- Gwadloup
- Martinique
- Mayotte
- Réunion
- Collectivités d'outre-mer
- Polynésie Française
- Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy
- Collectivité de Saint-Martin
- Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
- Territoire des îles Wallis-et-Futun
- Collectivité d'outre-mer à statut particulier
- Nouvelle-Calédonie
- Territoire d'outre-mer
- Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises