The French "Assemblée nationale": The Case of a Weak Legislature?
Résumé
This article sets out the situation of the French National Assembly. It focuses on the activity of French deputies in order to assess their real power. After the main aspects of the Fifth Republic are presented, the article scrutinises the influence of deputies and reveals that, even if the government's domination of the legislative process is real, there is still room for manoeuvre amongst deputies. Indeed, even if the deputies of the Right and Left conceive their roles differently, their influence remains a fact either because of strategic calculations from the government or because of the organisation of the legislative arena itself.