Politics of France

Political Organization of France.

France political system is a parliamentary and presidential democracy, the Republic of France. Legislative powers are:

-Executive: it is represented by the Republic´s president and the First Minister and his/her government cabinet.

-Legislative: it is represented by the Parliament with its two chambers (National Assembly and Senate).

-Judicial: it is represented by Judiciary (independent from the other powers).

State Political Organization

Political principal charges (government) and institutions are:

-The Republic´s President: he/she is the head of the state, can select the First Minister and is voted every five years by every older than eighteen years people.

-Ministers or Government Cabinet: they are, in theory, lead by the First Minister. They are selected by the Republic´s President but they are proposed by the First Minister.

The government is represented in all France by prefects.

-Parliament: its has the legislative power and it is composed by two chambers:

a) National Assembly: conformed by 577 deputies who voted every five years.

b) Senate: it is formed by 321 senators who are completely voted every nine years by other politician, members of other political institutions as deputies, counselors and municipal charges.

-Other political institutions:

-Constitutional Council (the most important judiciary who make the laws to be complied related by the Constitution.

-State Council: most important administrative judiciary.

-Courts of Appeals: most important judicial judiciary.

-Courts of Accounts: in charged of revise public accounts.

-Supreme Courts of Judiciary: advisory organ.

-Social and Economical Council: composed by unions, farmers, company leaders,etc. It is an advisory organ.

Administrative organization of France.

France is divided in many local governments: the biggest unit is the Region; then, departments; communes ; and commonwealths.

-Region: there are 26 regions in France, four of them are overseas regions. Regional Counselors are voted every six years and they can chose their Regional Council President (called Prefect), who leads the region´s politics in relations economics, territory order and professional training.

-Department: there are 100 departments in France. They were created in the French Revolution and they have their own autonomous government.

Departments are represented by the General Council, voted every six years. The council chooses their president, who has the executive power, manages accounts and manage the political staff.

Departments has some functions: social actions, public buildings construction, etc.

-Commune: communes are the smallest administrative (and territorial) divisions, created in 1789. There are 36.779 communes now.

They are administrated by a Municipal Council, voted every six years and they choose the mayor, who has executive and accounts administration powers. He/she controls every municipal matters (school, citizen matters, etc.). The mayor is also responsible to the State in citizen functions, public order, elections organization, etc.

-Commonwealths: they are not continuous administrative division; they are associations between communes by their interests, we mean they are temporal administrative associations. Commonwealths can be:

a) Simple communes association: some commune develops some common proyect and territory order.

b) Agglomeration communes: a group of communes represents a group of citizen of 50.000 for a common development proyect, territory order, etc.

c) Urban community: it is the same than the others, but now the group of citizen is bigger (500.000).

France administrative map (not included overseas territories)