Vices et vertus du système «semi-présidentiel» à la française. Quelques réflexions après les élections de 2017 et quelques mois d'exercice du pouvoir

Michel Troper (1)

1 CTAD - Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit

During the year 2017, seven national elections have taken place and as a result it seems that the French political system has undergone a complete upheaval, characterized by two features. The first is a collapse of the major parties, while a brand new party created from scratch by Emmanuel Macron after he won the presidency, gained a landslide majority in the National Assembly. The second feature is the concentration of powers in the hands of president Macron, who is not only the head of the executive, but also, because he controls the majority of the National Assembly, the legislative power. According to a prevailing view that these changes provide a new justification for labelling the French system semi-presidential, defined as a mixed system, one that would combine the parliamentary and the presidential systems. I start by criticizing this typology, and then try to show that while we have indeed some significant changes in the party system and in the style of the president, the structure of the constitutional system and the distribution of powers has remained the same and should not be characterized as semi-presidential. The concentration of powers in the hands of the president owed little to the constitution and a lot to his position as leader of the parliamentary majority.

Mots clés: French Political System; 2017 French Presidential Election; Macron (Emmanuel); Semi-Presidential System; Party System

Domaines: Droit

Michel Troper. Vices et vertus du système «semi-présidentiel» à la française. Quelques réflexions après les élections de 2017 et quelques mois d'exercice du pouvoir. Teoria Politica, 2018, 8, pp.203-217. ⟨halshs-03281102⟩