French Fourth Republic
French Republic République française (French) | |||||||||||||
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1946–1958 | |||||||||||||
Motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" | |||||||||||||
Anthem: "La Marseillaise" | |||||||||||||
Great Seal: | |||||||||||||
Capital and largest city | Paris 48°51′N 2°21′E / 48.850°N 2.350°E | ||||||||||||
Official language | French | ||||||||||||
Religion | Secular state[a]
In Alsace-Moselle:
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Demonym(s) | French | ||||||||||||
Government | Unitary parliamentary republic | ||||||||||||
President | |||||||||||||
• 1947–1954 | Vincent Auriol | ||||||||||||
• 1954–1959 | René Coty | ||||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||||
• 1947 (first) | Paul Ramadier | ||||||||||||
• 1958–1959 (last) | Charles de Gaulle | ||||||||||||
Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||||||
Council of the Republic | |||||||||||||
National Assembly | |||||||||||||
Historical era | |||||||||||||
13 October 1946 | |||||||||||||
• Constitution adopted | 27 October 1946 | ||||||||||||
17 March 1948 | |||||||||||||
13 March 1954 | |||||||||||||
1 November 1954 | |||||||||||||
29 October - 7 November 1956 | |||||||||||||
13 May 1958 | |||||||||||||
28 September 1958 | |||||||||||||
• New constitution adopted | 4 October 1958 | ||||||||||||
Currency | |||||||||||||
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Today part of | France Algeria |
The French Fourth Republic (French: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution of 13 October 1946. Essentially a reestablishment and continuation of the Third Republic which governed from 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War to 1940 during World War II, it suffered many of the same problems which led to its end.
Despite political dysfunction, the Fourth Republic saw an era of great economic growth in France and the rebuilding of the nation's social institutions and industry after World War II, with assistance from the United States through the Marshall Plan. It also saw the beginning of the rapprochement with France's longtime enemy Germany, which led to Franco-German co-operation and eventually to the European Union.
The new constitution made some attempts to strengthen the executive branch of government to prevent the unstable situation before the war, but instability remained and the Fourth Republic saw frequent changes of government – there were 21 administrations in its 12-year history. Moreover, the government proved unable to make effective decisions regarding decolonization of the numerous remaining French colonies. After a series of crises culminating in the Algerian crisis of 1958, the Fourth Republic collapsed. Wartime leader Charles de Gaulle returned from retirement to preside over a transitional administration empowered to design a new French constitution. The Fourth Republic was dissolved on 5 October 1958 following a public referendum which established the current Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency.
Founding of the Fourth Republic
After the liberation of France in 1944, the Vichy government was dissolved and the Provisional Government of the French Republic (French: Gouvernement provisoire de la République française, GPRF), also known as the French Committee of National Liberation,[dubious ] was instituted after a unanimous request of the Provisional Consultative Assembly to be properly represented.[1] With most of the political class discredited and containing many members who had more or less collaborated with Nazi Germany, Gaullism and communism became the most popular political forces in France.
For the
A new draft of the Constitution was written, which this time proposed the establishment of a
After the expulsion of the Communists from the governing coalition, France joined the Cold War against Stalin, as expressed by becoming a founding member of NATO in April 1949.[2] France now took a leadership position in unifying western Europe, working closely with Konrad Adenauer of West Germany. Robert Schuman, who was twice Prime Minister and at other times Minister of Finance and Foreign Minister, was instrumental in building post-war European and trans-Atlantic institutions. A devout Catholic and anti-Communist, he led France to be a member of the European Communities, the Council of Europe and NATO.[3]
Trente Glorieuses
Les Trente Glorieuses ('The Glorious Thirty') was the high prosperity in the 30 years from 1945 to 1975. In 1944, De Gaulle introduced a
The wartime damage was extensive, and large reparations from defeated Germany did not happen. The United States helped revive the French economy with the Marshall Plan (1948–1951), giving France $2.3 billion with no repayment. France was the second largest recipient after Britain. The total of all American grants and credits to France from 1946 to 1953 amounted to $4.9 billion.[5] It provided urgently needed funding for modernizing transport systems, electricity generation, and basic industries including cement, coal, and steel. The plan required a modernization of French industrial and managerial systems, free trade, and friendly economic relations with West Germany.[6]
The French economy grew rapidly like economies of other developed countries within the framework of the Marshall Plan such as
If it is still the case that France lags in the number of its telephones, working-class housing has improved beyond recognition and the various 'gadgets' of the consumer society–from television to motor cars–are now purchased by the working class on an even more avid basis than in other Western European countries.[12]
The worldwide 1973 oil crisis slowed down its explosive growth. Thus, the mid-1970s marked the end of the period. Thomas Piketty describes the Trente Glorieuses as an exceptional "catch up" period following the world wars. He cites statistics showing that normal growth in wealthy countries is about 1.5–2%, whereas in Europe growth dropped to 0.5% between 1913 and 1950, and then "caught up" with a growth rate of 4% between 1950 and 1970, until settling back to 1.5–2% from 1970 onward.[13]
Indochina and Tunisia
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Public opinion polls showed that in February 1954, only 7% of the French people wanted to continue the fight in Indochina against the Communists, led by Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh movement.[14]
Pierre Mendès France was a Radical Party leader who was Prime Minister for eight months in 1954–55, working with the support of the Socialist and Communist parties. His top priority was ending the war in Indochina, which had already cost 92,000 dead, 114,000 wounded and 28,000 captured in the wake of the humiliating defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in early May 1954.[15]
At the
Mendès France next came to an agreement with Habib Bourguiba, the nationalist leader in Tunisia, for the independence of that colony by 1956, and began discussions with the nationalist leaders in Morocco for a French withdrawal.[17]
Failure of the new parliamentary system
The intention of the new Constitution's authors was to rationalize the parliamentary system. Ministers were accountable to the legislative body, the French National Assembly, but some measures were introduced in order to protect the Cabinet and to reinforce the authority of the Prime Minister of France, who led the Cabinet. The goal of the new constitution was to reconcile parliamentary democracy with ministerial stability.
For instance, under the new Constitution, the President of the Council was the leader of the executive branch (Prime Minister of France). The President of the French Republic, elected by the Parliament (the National Assembly and the Council of the Republic), played a symbolic role. His main power was to propose a Prime Minister, who was subject to election by the National Assembly before forming a Cabinet. Only the Prime Minister could invoke a parliamentary vote on legitimacy of the Cabinet. The Prime Minister was also the only member of the executive able to demand a vote of confidence from the National Assembly (in the Third Republic any minister could call for a vote of confidence). The Cabinet could be dismissed if an absolute majority of the National Assembly's members voted against the Cabinet. Finally, the National Assembly could be dissolved after two ministerial crises in the legislature.
However, these constitutional measures did not work. In January 1947, after his election by the National Assembly and the nomination of his ministers, Prime Minister Paul Ramadier called for a vote of confidence in order to verify that the Assembly approved the composition of his Cabinet. This initiated a custom of double election, a vote for the Prime Minister followed by a vote of confidence in the chosen Cabinet, that weakened the Prime Minister's authority over the Cabinet. Cabinets were dismissed with only a plurality (not the absolute majority) of the National Assembly voting against the Cabinet. Consequently, these ministerial crises did not result in the dissolution of Parliament. Thus, as in the Third Republic, this regime was characterized by ministerial instability.
The Fourth Republic was also a victim of the political context. The split of the
European countries
The creation of the
The Treaty of Paris (1951), which created the ECSC, was superseded on 25 March 1957 by the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (the forerunner to the European Union, created in 1993 through the Maastricht Treaty).
Algeria and collapse
The trigger for the collapse of the Fourth Republic was the
Further complications came when a section of the French Army rebelled and openly backed the
On 24 May, French paratroopers from the Algerian corps landed on
De Gaulle, who had announced his retirement from politics a decade before, placed himself in the midst of the crisis, calling on the nation to suspend the government and create a new constitutional system. On 29 May 1958, French politicians agreed upon calling on De Gaulle to take over the government as prime minister. The French Army's willingness to support an overthrow of the constitutional government was a significant development in French politics. With Army support, De Gaulle's government terminated the Fourth Republic (the last parliament of the Fourth Republic voted for its dissolution) and drew up a new constitution proclaiming the French Fifth Republic in 1958.
Notes
- ^ Excluding Alsace-Moselle
- ^ The question of the legal effective date of the Constitution is debated. It was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on 29 September 1946, approved by referendum 13 October, promulgated by Georges Bidault, President of the Provisional Government on 27 October, and published in the Journal officiel de la République française the next day. Some, like Louis Favoreu, say it became effective "in successive stages" ("par paliers"); others, adhering to article 98, section 2 of the Constitution, say it became effective on 24 December 1946, the date of the first Council of the Republic.
See also
References
- ASIN B0006DAIX0.
- ^ Young, John W. (1990). France, the Cold War and the Western Alliance, 1944–49: French Foreign Policy and Post-War Europe.
- ^ Fimister, Alan (2008). Robert Schuman: Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe.
- ^ Gordon 2017, pp. 189–199.
- U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1954 Archived 3 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Table 1075, p. 899. (1955) [Online edition: see file 1954-08.pdf]
- ^ Esposito, Chiarella (1994). America's Feeble weapon: Funding the Marshall Plan in France and Italy, 1948–1950. Greenwood.
- ISBN 0-415-02522-2.
- ^ Ardagh, John. The New France: A Society in Transition 1945-1977 (3rd ed.).
- OL 36924M.
- OL 11904151M.
- OL 34450323M.
- ^ Blondel, Jean; Charlton, Donald Geoffrey. Contemporary France: Politics, Society, and Institutions.
- OL 32602533M.
- ^ Larkin 1997, pp. 240–241.
- ^ Windrow, Martin (2013). The French Indochina War 1946–54. Osprey Publishing.
- ISBN 978-1400838813. Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
- ^ Werth, Alexander (1957). The Strange History of Pierre Mendès France and the Great Conflict over French North Africa.
- ^ Dell, Edmund (1995). The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [page needed].
- ^ "The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) - Wikisource, the free online library. Article 20". Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
- ^ a b c "Jacques Massu obituary". Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
- ^ JSTOR 2610008.
Works cited
- Gordon, Daniel A. (2017). "Full Speed Ahead? The Trente Glorieuses in a Rear View Mirror". Contemporary European History. 26 (1): 189–199. .
- OL 2527483M.
Further reading
- Alexander, Martin, and Keiger, John F. V. "France and the Algerian War: strategy, operations and diplomacy." Journal of Strategic Studies 25.2 (2002): 1–32.
- Aron, Raymond. France Steadfast and Changing: The Fourth to the Fifth Republic (Harvard University Press, 1960)
- Bell, David, et al. A Biographical Dictionary of French Political Leaders since 1870 (1990), 400 short articles by experts
- Brogi, Alessandro. A question of self-esteem: the United States and the Cold War choices in France and Italy, 1944–1958 (Greenwood Press, 2002)
- Connelly, Matthew James. A diplomatic revolution: Algeria's fight for independence and the origins of the post-cold war era (Oxford University Press, 2002)
- Evans, Martin. Algeria: France's Undeclared War (2012), a scholarly history
- Fontanela, Jacques, and Hébert, Jean‐Paul. "The end of the 'French grandeur policy'." Defence and Peace Economics 8.1 (1997): 37–55.
- Giles, Frank. The locust years: The story of the Fourth French Republic, 1946–1958 (Secker & Warburg, 1991)
- Hitchcock, William I. France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944–1954 Archived 20 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine (University of North Carolina Press, 1998)
- Horne, Alistair. A savage war of peace: Algeria 1954–1962 (1977), classic narrative
- Krasnoff, Lindsay. The Making of Les Bleus: Sport in France, 1958–2010 (2013)
- Lynch, Frances. France and the International Economy: from Vichy to the Treaty of Rome (Routledge, 2006)
- McMillan, James F. Twentieth-Century France: Politics and Society in France 1898–1991 (Oxford University Press, 1992)
- Marshall, D. Bruce. The French Colonial Myth and Constitution-Making in the Fourth Republic (1973),
- Nettelbeck, Colin W. "The Eldest Daughter and the Trente glorieuses: Catholicism and national identity in postwar France." Modern & Contemporary France 6.4 (1998): 445–462.
- Nord, Philip. France's New Deal: From the Thirties to the Postwar Era (Princeton University Press, 2010)
- Pickles, Dorothy. France, the Fourth Republic (Greenwood Press, 1976)
- Rioux, Jean-Pierre, and Rogers, Godfrey. The Fourth Republic, 1944–1958 (Cambridge University Press, 1987), scholarly survey
- Soutou, Georges‐Henri. "France and the Cold War, 1944–63." Diplomacy and Statecraft12.4 (2001): 35–52.
- Sowerwine, Charles. France since 1870: culture, politics and society (Palgrave, 2001)
- Sutton, Michael. France and the construction of Europe, 1944–2007: the geopolitical imperative (Berghahn Books, 2011)
- Trachtenberg, Marc. "France and NATO, 1949–1991." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 9.3 (2011): 184–194.
- Williams, Philip Maynard. Politics in Post-War France: Parties and the Constitution in the Fourth Republic Archived 12 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine (1954)
- Williams, Philip Maynard. Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic (1964)
External links
- Works related to the constitution of the French Fourth Republic at Wikisource
- Media related to the French Fourth Republic at Wikimedia Commons