Suchergebnisse

Deformations of the representation of territorial entities and of the people in the [french] senate
A precise measurement of the inequalities of representation in the election of senators within each departmental electoral college makes it possible both to draw a reliable picture and a map of the alterations of the representativeness of the upper chamber and to analyse its factors. The distortions among municipalities, which bias the representation of almost all departments, affect above all those whose structure and activities are the most diversified. The system is wanting in both equity and consistency. It is not justified by the necessities of territorial representation. Nor does it meet the constitutional rule of equal suffrage. Lastly, the resulting deformation of the Senate's political profile does not help it exercise correctly its function of recourse and regulation of power : the pendulum is unbalanced. The situation is nevertheless not hopeless. Assuring the Senate a more genuine and wider representativeness, not at all incompatible with the indispensable specificity of the upper chamber, would increase its credit, reinforce its political role as well as its efficacy. It would contribute to normalizing the operation of the bicameral regime.

When then legislative record of the first 25 years of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic is examined, the efficacy of the Senate, which has had many opportunites for assertion, appears to have not always corresponded to its position vis-à-vis the government and the majority in the National Assembly. The Senate's efficacy is neither reduced to nil during crises, nor totally satisfactory when relations are very close. Although the Senate may meet many obstacles for making its stand prevail, it has two levers which can prove very strong : the art of using lime, as the second Chamber may subordinate all its decisions to a period of dialogue and reftection, and the art of negotiating and reaching agreements in the spirit of a true search for compromise.

Although under the Fifth Republic the Senate has changea very little since 1958, its fortunes have fluctuated considerably, usually because of changes in the political context. Designed to give support to the Executive whenever necessary, it soon became a bulwark of opposition to the Government. For seven years it was kept in the background, until the critical period in 1969 when what it considered inherent in its status as a parliamentary assembly was called in question. Once the storm had passed, however, it regained its position and resumed its normal activities. In 1974, the majority in the Senate coincided at last with the presidential majority, so that it is now again the buttress of the Executive and deserving of its attention. Although it had undergone no