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French Policies

Introduction

The French economic situation, like that of all advanced industrialized countries, deteriorated considerably from late 2007. In 2009, the French economy contracted by 2.2%, albeit significantly less than the 3% predicted by the IMF in April that year and the budget deficit increased to a record 7.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). The deficit narrowed to only 7.0% of GDP in 2010, significantly below the officially predicted figure of 7.7%, as a result of unexpectedly strong economic growth. The Government committed to lowering the deficit to 6% of GDP in 2011 and at mid-year appeared to be on track to achieve this.

Discussion

The French economy was one of the last in the euro area to enter recession and one of the first to exit, experiencing growth from the third quarter of 2009. GDP growth in 2010 comfortably exceeded official forecasts, reaching 1.5%, while growth during the first quarter of 2011 was strong, at 0.9%. By mid-2008, business confidence had fallen below its long-term average, while consumer confidence hit record low levels. Business confidence had improved markedly by early 2010 and remained high into 2011. The consumer confidence index made a uneventful recovery from July 2008, but in 2011 remained inadequate owing to persistently high unemployment and the euro area sovereign debt crisis. Unemployment rose rapidly, reaching 10% in November 2009, and remained above 9.5% throughout 2010 and the first half of 2011, despite solid economic growth(Harrison, Martin &French, p. 342).

Fifth Republic

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle prepare his team a draft constitution, which approved by, referendum on September 28 of that year: the Constitution of October 4, 1958, better known as the Fifth Republic Constitution (Cerny, Philip & Martin, p.176).

The text of the Constitution includes the preamble to the Constitution of the Fourth Republic. The Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic and the Charter of the environment (2004), known as constitutional block (Haight & Frank, p. 225).

The Fifth Republic gives a power greater than the Fourth to the President. Until 2000, the President's mandate was 7 years, from entoces, elected for a period of 5 years. He also conferred the executive branch, which was a desire expressed by General de Gaulle for the drafting of the Constitution of the Fourth Republic (Haight & Frank, p. 225).

The text adopted in 1958 introduced a new mode of electing the President of the Republic, elected by a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate. The memory of the tedious election 1954, in which it took thirteen ballots for deputies and senators to agree to elect René Coty was still in memory. The new constitution entrusted the task of choosing a college president to approximately 80,000 electors (representatives, senators, general councillors, mayors and representatives of municipal councils). This system used only once, on December 10,1958 (Harrison, Martin &French, p. 342).

In 1962, a referendum called again to change the system of electing the President of the Republic. It introduced the principle ...