Legislators have toppled France’s government in a confidence vote. The result on Monday marked a new crisis for Europe’s second-largest economy that obliges President Emmanuel Macron to search for a fourth prime minister in 12 months.
Of course. I specifically mentioned the Greek system because the role of the president was inspired by France, “with improvements” and maybe those improvements can be ported upstream.
By the way, I don’t consider “instability” as a problem per se. Italy has traditionally had weak governments, but with a strong enough state apparatus, that used to not be an actual problem. And France has an even stronger civil administration than Italy.
Ultimately, a republic can only be as stable as le Peuple wants to be, there is no magic institutional workaround. The Greek idea of repeated elections is that the period of instability should be short and with tight deadlines, forcing the political powers to negotiate and improve their offerings to the electorate. But if le Peuple wants to blow it up, no institutional straightjacket is going to stop that.
Of course. I specifically mentioned the Greek system because the role of the president was inspired by France, “with improvements” and maybe those improvements can be ported upstream.
By the way, I don’t consider “instability” as a problem per se. Italy has traditionally had weak governments, but with a strong enough state apparatus, that used to not be an actual problem. And France has an even stronger civil administration than Italy.
Ultimately, a republic can only be as stable as le Peuple wants to be, there is no magic institutional workaround. The Greek idea of repeated elections is that the period of instability should be short and with tight deadlines, forcing the political powers to negotiate and improve their offerings to the electorate. But if le Peuple wants to blow it up, no institutional straightjacket is going to stop that.