Evening star., 1934-04-01

"HE parliamentary institutions
of the French Republic are
being put to very severe test.
L Hitherto the rule Of party
government has been we'll
nigh absolute. The political groups
which happen to secure a majority of
seats in the Chamber of Deputies and
in the Senate are called upon to form
the cabinet when the President desig-
mates one of their leaders for the pre-
miership. The fact that a ministry
has failed, on a given occasion. to be
supported either by the Chamber or
the Senate does not imply that other
parties will come into power. with the
help, perhaps, of dissolution of Par
Lament.
In such a case the President merely
appoints another leader of the same
majority which suffered defeat. on
the assumption that lack of party
discipline only was responsible for the
unfortunate occurrence and that.
will reassert itself AS a matter Of
fact. the vanquished prime minister.
more often than not, is given a min
isterial post in the new cabinet.
System in Decay.
Since 1877 no transfer of minis
terial power from the majority to the
minority. with resort to the dissolu-
ton provided for in the 1875 consti-
tuition, has occurred in the interval be-
tween general elections. All Parlia-
ments have run their allotted course
OF four years. the various groups
making bargains whenever the shift
ing of power toward the Left or the
Right was deemed necessary. The
third republic has lived for over half
a century in accordance with such
rough methods.
But a decay Of the system has be-
come noticeable for some time. In
1924 and in 1882 the radical Socialists
and the Socialists carried the country
by the means of an electoral cartel" :"
But although they pool all their
strength at the polls because singly
they would be overwhelmed by the
Center and the Right, they are un-
able to act together in Parliament for
any length of time-for there are
striking divergences in their programs
The outcome of that state of affairs
is the undue influence over legislation
and administration enjoyed by the
Socialists, periodical breaks between
the two sections of the parliamentary
majority. involving frequent minis
terial crises, violent reactions of the
Center and of the Right. In 1926
these facts jeopardized the currency;
a violent popular demonstration oc-
CURED in front of the Chamber of
Deputies, the cabinet of national
union presided over by M. Poincare
had to be hastily formed and the
"cartellist" majority was deprived of
Office for all practical purposes.
Stavisky Case Death Blow.
Reconstructed in 1882. that same
majority soon was compelled to bow
to the same fate: it was reduced to
practical impotence by the inability
of the Radical Socialists and Socialists
to agree as to the means Of balancing
the budget, which meant the speedy
disappearance of three cabinets within
10 months. a previous one having been
destroyed upon the issue of the Ameri-
can debt.
Then the developments of the Stav-
isky case struck the death blow. Last
November a fourth cabinet headed by
M. Chautemps was wrecked on ac-
count of them and, finally, the sixth
cabinet led by M. Daladier clashed
with an infuriated crowd in the
streets of Paris and had to disappear.
Thus a very paradoxical and un-
natural situation has come about. In
spite of their numerical inferiority in
both houses of Parliament, the Center
and the Right have shared with the
Left, on a basis of equality, in the
formation of the new ministry of ma
tional union. But the prime minister
himself, NJ. Castor Doumergue. and
the program he plans to carry out are
undoubtedly of conservative nature.
The rioters have proved stronger than
the regularly elected representatives
Of the country. For the second time
within eight years the parliamentary
system. as it has worked under the
third republic, has been practically
suspended.
Numerous Precedents.
The question that arises is as fol-
lows: Can the will of the voters. as it
was expressed in May, 1882. and as
even now it probably persists in the
provinces. be permanently set at
naught by the wild movements of
public opinion in the Partisan capital,
by the fears and apprehensions of the
bankers who reign supreme over saw
ings and investments in all part of the
land? Is the rule of the majority to
be displaced by the rule of the mi
nority associated with Paris?
We are confronted with a situation
for which there have been numerous
precedents. As early as the wars of
religion and the "Fronde," Paris set
itself up in opposition to the rest of
the country. National unity was
again threatened at the time of the
French revolution by the Jacobin out
bursts Of Paris. The revolution Of
1s48, which sent King Louis Philippe
to exile, was mainly the achievement