Presidents, Prime Ministers and Majorities: The Complex Dynamics of the French Fifth Republic

This book focuses on the triangle of power dynamics between presidents, prime ministers and parliamentary majorities, and the way it has evolved throughout the French Fifth Republic, the longest-lasting semi-presidential system. What are the main patterns in the functions and interactions of the three institutions? How do the personalities of presidents, prime ministers and leading parliamentarians shape the dynamics of the institutional system and France’s political evolution during each presidential term? To what extent do their ideological and partisan affiliations affect collaboration between key political leaders? How do the dynamics of inter-institutional relations influence the country’s overall stability and progress? And what are the main lessons of the Fifth Republic’s semi-presidential experience for countries that based their institutional systems on the French model?

Sergiu Mișcoiu is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of European Studies, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo is Associate Professor of History at the University Paris East Créteil, France.