Cohabitation

Another subject regarding France, in addition to what I wrote here: The original Fifth Republic constitution set presidential terms at seven years, and the maximum parliamentary term at five years. Effective with the 2002 elections, both are set at five years.

In 1986, a center-right coalition won a majority in the National Assembly (lower house of the parliament), during the presidency of Francois Mitterand, a Socialist. That was the first time in the Fifth Republic that the president's party was not part of the governing coalition in the National Assembly. In other words, the presidency and the parliament were controlled by different parties. The French called the situation "cohabitation".

Cohabitation recurred from 1997 to 2002, when a Socialist-led coalition had a parliamentary majority, during the presidency of Jacques Chirac, a center-right Gaullist. That turned the tables on Chirac, who had been prime minister during that earlier period of cohabitation.

This leads me to one of my favorite subjects: political language, especially the differences in political language between countries.

A similar scenario occurs from time to time in the United States, when one party controls one or both houses of Congress, and the president is of the other party. That has been the case with the 2007-8 Congress, with Democratic majorities tangling with a Republican president. Here in America, we often call that "gridlock".

I consider it an interesting commentary on our cultural differences, that the French compare that divided-government scenario to an intimate relationship, while we draw an analogy to a traffic jam.

The recent French shift to five-year terms for both the president and the National Assembly is intended to reduce the likelihood of cohabitation. The theory is that, if presidential and parliamentary elections are held at the same time, the voters are likely to elect the same party in both. It has worked out that way in 2002 and 2007, but that is by no means guaranteed.

The American electorate has elected a president of one party, and a congressional majority of the other party, on the same day, in a few instances, such as 1996, 1988, 1972, 1968 and 1956.