Social ChoiceLecture 13

Carmen Pasca and John Hey

Plan for Today

• We concentrate on the case of French bureaucracy because of 20 years intimate and practical experience of it.

• The various organisational bodies: Bureau, Delegations, The President of the National Assembly, The Chairmen's Conference, Questeurs, Political groups, Parliamentary committees.

• Standing Committees,• Parliamentary Delegations,• Parliamentary Offices,• The Questions tabled by the Members,• Particular Procedure.

The Bureau

• The Bureau has general management powers over the Assembly. ’It shall have power to arrange the deliberations of the Assembly and to organise and direct its departments.’ Some functions are exercised individually: Vice-Presidents stand in for and represent the President; Quaestors (see later) are tasked with administrative and financial management; Secretaries take care of voting operations.

• Collegially, it lies with the Bureau to represent the Assembly at external events, interpret and apply the Rules of Procedure, settle major sitting incidents, and ensure fair treatment with regard to audiovisual communication. The organisation of the departments and the staff regulations of the Assembly’s personnel are settled by the Bureau’s deliberations.

Bureau Delegations

• To prepare some of the Bureau’s decisions, it has become customary to set up delegations within it.

• There are currently six delegations.• The delegations are relating to the following fields:• Broadcasting communication and press,• Application of the deputy’s service rules,• Questions concerning study groups and parliamentary offices,• International activities,• Computing and new technologies,• Consideration of the admissibility of Members’ bills.

Bureau Meetings

• Each of these delegations is presided over by a Vice-President who reports his delegation’s conclusions to the Bureau.

• The Bureau meets approximately once a month. Each meeting give rise to the publication in the feuilleton(internal bulletin) and on the Assembly’s website, of a list of decisions, some of which are published in the Journal officiel (Official Gazette).

The President of the National Assembly

• The Constitution of the Vth Republic granted some stability to the mandate of the President of the National Assembly by having him elected for the five years of the term (Article 32 of the Constitution), whereas under the IVth Republic, he was elected at the beginning of each annual session. While he has lost some of his prerogatives — in particular during the interim period between Presidents of the Republic, to the benefit of the President of the Senate — the President of the National Assembly has replaced the latter as President of Parliament convened in Congress in Versailles in the event of a constitutional amendment. The two Presidents share several constitutional prerogatives: power of appointment, right of referral; and in some cases they must be consulted.

The Role of the President• In the conduct of the debates, the President — replaced, whenever

necessary, by one of the Vice-Presidents — plays a role the scope of which can be measured by Rule 52 of the Rules of Procedure : ‘The President shall open the sitting, control debate, enforce these Rules and maintain order; he may at any time suspend or adjourn the sitting.’

• The Presidents personify and represent the National Assembly in the outside world. The share of international relations in their activities has increased over the past fifteen years or so. They receive many foreign personalities and delegations. Since June 1993, resuming a tradition interrupted since the reception in 1919 of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, foreign heads of State and government are received not only in the Hôtel de Lassay and the Palais Bourbon, but also in the “hemicycle” (the French name for the room where they meet) where no President of the French Republic has entered since 1875. The Constitution of 1958 moreover bans the President of the Republic from directly addressing the assemblies; he communicates with them by messages which are read for him and which do not give rise to any debate (Article 18).

The Chairmen’s Conference 1• The Chairmen’s Conference, created back in 1911, mainly

intervenes in setting the Assembly’s work schedule. • Unlike the Bureau, it does not result directly from a vote by

the deputies.

The Chairmen’s Conference 2• The following are members by right : the President of the

National Assembly, who convenes the Conference and presides over it; the six Vice Presidents; the Chairmen of the six standing committees and, where applicable, of a special committee; the chairmen of the groups who, in the event of a vote, are allocated ‘a number of votes equal to the number of members of the group’ (Rule 48, paragraph 7, of the Rules of Procedure); but voting is rare at the Chairmen’s Conference. In addition there is the general rapporteur of the Finance Committee and, since 1995, the Chairman of the Delegation for the European Union, a sign of the influence acquired by this body. The Government is represented on the Chairmen’s Conference by one of its members, customarily the minister tasked with relations with Parliament.

The Chairmen’s Conference 3• At first sight, since 1958 the Conference’s role has no longer

been more than executory. • At its weekly meeting, ‘it examines the Assembly’s order of

business for the current week and the two following weeks.’ In this respect it is notified through its President, ‘of requests made by the Government for business to be given precedence on the Assembly’s agenda.’ (Rule 48, paragraph 4, of the Rules of Procedure).

• For the rest, it limits itself to making proposals ‘in addition to debates given precedence at the Government’s request’, which forms the complementary agenda.

The Chairmen’s Conference 4• The constitutional amendment of 4 August 1995 set forth a

monthly sitting reserved by priority for an agenda set by the Assembly. The Chairmen’s Conference chooses the date of these sittings and sets the rules for their sharing between all the political groups.

• It also lies with the Conference to set the date of the debate of motions of censure when any are moved, and to determine speaking time in the discussion of legislation and in debates, as well as the organisational rules and the detailed schedule of the budget ‘marathon’. It also determines the weekly sittings devoted to questions for oral answer, of which it organises the conduct.

The Chairmen’s Conference 5• Lastly, the Conference decides on the organisation of certain

‘formal’ public ballots which are postponed to the time most favourable for participation of the deputies

• The Chairmen’s Conference is a place of meeting and even of negotiation between the representatives of the groups and of committees and the Government.

• Apart from matters concerning the agenda, its meeting is an opportunity to evoke and solve all the immediate problems which the operation of the Assembly can cause, particularly in the exercise of its deliberative duty. In this respect it plays an important and growing role in the operation of the Assembly.

Questeurs 1• The term and the post date back to the 20 December 1803.

Since the Third Republic, there have been three. Traditionally two of them belong to the majority and the third to the opposition. “The Quaestors shall be responsible for financial and administrative matters, pursuant to guidelines laid down by the Bureau. No new expenditure shall be incurred without prior consultation with them.” The National Assembly appoints them at the beginning of each term and, like all other members of the Bureau, except the President, renews them each year in October, at the opening of the session.

Questeurs 2• The three Quaestors deal collegially with the administrative

and financial management of the Assembly. Management of the personnel, equipment, fleet of cars, buildings, restaurants and cafe, social security regimes, and pensions… are their responsibility. Their role is particularly important in the budgetary sphere: they prepare and determine the Assembly’s budget — in a formation where they sit with the Quaestors of the Senate and under the presidency of a chamber president at the Audit Court — and they commit expenditure. As the assemblies are financially autonomous, Quaestors commit expenditure without being subject to the approval of a financial controller, an official of the executive branch of government.

Political Groups• Groups have existed since their creation in 1910 at the Chamber of

Deputies. Today, the Rules of Procedure, which devote a chapter to them, define them as the meeting of deputies sharing ‘political affinities’.

• Groups freely define their organisation, meeting and voting procedure, and their Rules of Procedure. They are given premises and a secretariat. Their functions and powers have expanded along with the progression — unequal depending on parties — of party discipline. Groups therefore play a role in many fields concerning the organisation and operation of the Assembly; the numerical size of each group is taken into account for some appointments (Bureau, committees, delegations and offices). The same applies for the allocation of speaking time in debates, the allocation of questions for oral answer or, lastly, explanations of vote.

Group Chairmen• Group chairmen, who are ex officio members of the

Chairmen’s Conference — within which, in the event of a vote, they have a number of votes equal to the number of members of the group they chair — also have a great number of prerogatives in the conduct of the legislative procedure and in the holding of the public sitting. They can, for instance, themselves request, or via a member specially appointed for this purpose, a suspension of a sitting or a public ballot. They can also request a verification of the quorum, but this right must be exercised personally. They also have certain powers of initiative for the inclusion on the agenda of some instruments : resolutions to create a committee of inquiry or on draft Community instruments, and Members’ bills debated at the monthly private members’ sittings.

Standing Committees of Parliament 1

• The National Assembly has eight standing committees, which corresponds to the maximum number set by the Constitution

• Their role is twofold:• Except when a special commission is formed (see below), any

proposed law or bill is sent for examination before a standing committee, which debates and since the constitutional reform in July 2008, the text adopted by the Committee seizure which is discussed in public meetings;

Standing Committees of Parliament 2

• The standing committees inform the Assembly to enable it to exercise its oversight role of government action.

• The appointment of a special commission to review a draft or a bill may be requested by the Government (it is then right), the chairman of a standing committee, by a group chairman or by at least five members.

• Commissions of inquiry are formed at the initiative of one or more members to gather on a specific topic of the information for submission to the Assembly. They have wide powers as the right quote or the empowerment to take back any document service.

Organisation of Parliamentary work

• The organisation of parliamentary work: the questions and the shuttle (“navette”).

• Written questions: They are addressed to ministers in order is to seek clarification on specific points of law or to clarify an aspect of Government policy

• The latter has a period of two months to respond. Written questions - more than 26,000 between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008 - are published each week, and the responses of Ministers in the Official Gazette, edition of Questions of the National Assembly

Oral Questions• Except during the budget discussion, oral questions are called during the

weeks of control due to a meeting on Tuesday morning and a meeting on Thursday morning. The number of questions is 32 for each session equally among groups of majority and opposition. The duration of the question and the answer is 6 minutes. These questions are usually on topics of local interest.

• The Assembly devoted two sessions per week on these issues, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.Before each session and no later than 14 hours, groups that have a talk time considering their numbers, shall send to the Presidency on behalf of the authors of their questions and ministers to whom these questions are asked . The theme of the questions need not be disclosed.

Commissions of Inquiry• Commissions of inquiry are designed to inform the Assembly on specific matters, provided

they are not subject to judicial proceedings, or the management of public services or national businesses.

• The creation of a commission of inquiry result of the deposit or more members of a proposed resolution is sent to the relevant committee and then discussed in open session.

• Commissions of inquiry are composed of thirty members, which designated the proportional groups. They can hold hearings and Rapporteur is empowered to carry out missions and on-site. Following their work, the duration can not exceed six months, shall prepare a report for publication, unless otherwise decided.

• The missions consist of information to inform the National Assembly to enable it to exercise its control over government policy. They can be created either by one or more committees, either by the Conference of Presidents. They establish a relationship that may give rise, in open session to vote without a debate or a question and answer session.

The Passage of a Law• This proceeds by the Successive Consideration of bills and by the

Shuttle.• Before it is finally adopted by Parliament, a bill must be passed in

identical terms by the two assemblies• The normal procedure therefore consists in the text shuttling

between the two assemblies, each being called on to consider and, possibly, amend the text adopted by the other. The shuttle comes to an end when one assembly adopts without any amendment the text previously adopted by the other assembly. This is known as a vote conforme.

• The shuttle remains the most current procedure for the adoption of laws, approximately two-thirds of them being passed without recourse to the conciliatory procedure instituted by the joint committee composed of an equal number of members from each assembly.

The Rhythm of Sessions and Sittings• There are three major periods of time in the French National

Assembly: the Parliament (which, if it is not dissolved, lasts five years), the session and the sitting.

• Session refers to the period of the year when the Parliament meets to deliberate in plenary sitting. Since the constitutional reform of August 4, 1995, a single nine-month session has replaced the previous rhythm of two three-month sessions which had been in operation from 1958.

• The rhythm of sessions – ordinary, extraordinary and sessions as of right – is laid down by the Constitution, which also determines the maximum number of days of sitting to be held during the different types of session.

• However, the assemblies themselves decide the weeks of sitting, as well as the days and the timetable

The Revision of the Constitution and the Congress

• A revision of the Constitution may be initiated either by the President of the Republic or by the Parliament.

• In this particular field, the two parliamentary assemblies have the same powers. This means that a constitutional bill must be passed in identical terms by both the National Assembly and the Senate.

• The law is definitively passed either by referendum (a procedure used only once at the time of the 2000 constitutional revision to reduce the term of office of the President of the Republic to five years) or by a three-fifths majority of the votes cast by the two assemblies meeting together in Congress at Versailles.

• Since 1958, there have been 24 constitutional revisions of differing importance.

Votes at the National Assembly• Votes at the National Assembly have a double nature : • As a consequence of the prohibition of voting by binding

constraints, votes are personal and the possibilities of voting by proxy are limited ;

• With the exception of votes on personal appointments (the election of the President at the beginning of a Parliament for example), votes are public and may be by show of hands, by ordinary public ballot or by ordinary public ballot at the rostrum.

Conclusions• The French system is weird.• They have a different system from most other countries.• While other countries have two houses (UK: House of Lords

and House of Commons; Italy: Senate and House of Deputies) the relationship between the two and their constitution is particularly French.

• The system in France today is a mix of tradition (dating from before the French Revolution), history and reformation.

• How does this compare with your own country?