The French Parliament
| Author | Peter Campbell |
| Published date | 01 December 1953 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01709.x |
| Date | 01 December 1953 |
The French
Parliament
By
PETER CAMPBELL
Mr.
Campbell, Lecturer in Government in the University
of
Manchester,
explains the current practice in the French Parliament and draws some
interesting cornpartsons with British practice.
N
recent years the growth of ministerial powers and the transfer ofimportant
I
industries to public boards have caused increased attention to be given
to the general problem of the relations between parliament and the government
and to the particular problem of the relations between parliament and the
administrative services. Foreign experience has sometimes been cited, but
not always with appreciation of its relevance and significance. Any thorough
account of the procedure of a foreign parliament may therefore help
US
to
solve
our
own problems as well as to understand the politics of a foreign
country.
The welcome that would have been given to any competent book
of
this kind has been given with extra warmth to
The
Parliament
of
France
by
D.
W.
S.
Lidderda1e.l
Mr.
Lidderdale’s experience as a Clerk to the House
of Commons has enabled him to ask most of the right questions, and he
has answered most of them in a very scholarly manner. He deals with the
history and organisation of the French parliament, and with its procedure
with regard to legislation, finance and the executive. His account is clear,
accurate, and comprehensive. It is true that certain defects of matter and
manner can be noted. For example, Mr. Lidderdale’s account of financial
procedure is not as good as the rest of his book. He might have said more
about how the administration is controlled by the committees of the chambers
and by the many extra-parliamentary bodies which contain members of the
chambers appointed to represent them. He might have said more about
the relations between parliament on the one hand and the Economic Council
and the Council of the French Union on the other-two bodies which have
among their tasks that of advising parliament about certain types
of
And he might more often have reminded his readers that the chambers are
political bodies. Many of the procedural forms that he describes (and many
of the changes that are made in them from time to time) are designed to aid
or
hinder one side
or
another in the struggle for power
;
the ways in which
these forms are used-or abused-are not just aspects of the working of a
piece
of
constitutional machinery, but are tactics in that struggle.
As
an
official of the House of Commons,
Mr.
Lidderdale is vowed to impartiality
;
the consequent discretion of some of his references to political parties in the
Assembly obscures the significance of what he is saying. This is unfortunate
in a book about a parliament in which political and partisan significance is
to
be found in almost everything-from the placing of the members from
‘Hansard
Society,
1951.
Pp.
296.
18s.
‘For
a
recent discussion
of
the
work
of
these
two
bodies
see
D.
Pickles,
French
Polttr~,.
Koyal
Iilstitbte
of
Iatcrnational
Affairs,
1953.
Pp,
229-233.
349
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