Cabinet Government in France

The general opinion among English and American political writers is that the French system of cabinet government is very nearly a régime of “parliamentary anarchy.” In recent years it has also been the object of severe attack by many French scholars, notably by Professors Duguit, Moreau, Barthélemy and Faguet, and by public men like Charles Benoist, Raymond Poincaré and others, who assert that while the cabinet system has been established by law, it does not exist in fact, but in its place is to be found a poor imitation of the true cabinet sytem of England, upon which that of France was supposed to have been modeled.One undoubted reason why cabinet government in France has not worked smoothly is to be found in the fact that it is not an indigenous institution. It was transplanted from the country of its origin where it had taken deep root and had developed to a high state of efficiency through a long process of evolution, and was suddenly introduced into one where the historical traditions, political habits and mental aptitudes of the people were very unlike those of the English.