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Descartes, Rousseau, de Gaulle: France’s Constitutional Waltz of Plebiscitarian Caesarism

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  • Wenzel Nikolai G.

    (Research Fellow, University of Paris Law School (Center for Law & Economics))

Abstract

Since 1789, France has had 21 constitutional regimes. This paper explains French constitutional instability through the optic of “constitutional culture” – the norms, attitudes, and beliefs, conscious and unconscious, held by a dominant portion of the French people about the nature, scope and function of constitutional constraints. French constitutional culture has historically been torn between a desire for a strong and effective state, and an obsessive veneration of democracy. This paper argues that France’s constitutional instability between 1789 and the constitution of 1958 was a series of swings between plebiscitarianism and caesarism, caused by the influences of Rousseau and Descartes. Problems remain, especially the risks of an unconstrained “hyperpresidentialism” and undue power to the street’s ability to bully the rule of law into continued rents. But the Fifth Republic has been successful because it balanced the tensions through a semi-presidential system: the plebiscitarianism of parliamentary democracy, along with the caesarism of a strong presidency.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenzel Nikolai G., 2016. "Descartes, Rousseau, de Gaulle: France’s Constitutional Waltz of Plebiscitarian Caesarism," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 191-211, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:22:y:2016:i:2:p:191-211:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/jeeh-2015-0008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Peter J. Boettke & Christopher J. Coyne & Peter T. Leeson, 2015. "Institutional stickiness and the New Development Economics," Chapters, in: Laura E. Grube & Virgil Henry Storr (ed.), Culture and Economic Action, chapter 6, pages 123-146, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    3. Nikolai Wenzel, 2010. "From contract to mental model: Constitutional culture as a fact of the social sciences," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 55-78, March.
    4. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Weingast,Barry R., 2013. "Violence and Social Orders," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107646995.
    5. Nikolay Wenzel, 2007. "Ideology, constitutional culture and institutional change: the EU constitution as reflection of Europe’s emergent postmodernism," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 2(3), pages 25-47, September.
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