La III Repubblica. Regime di Assemblea o regime parlamentare “inautentico”? André Siegfried o Robert Redslob

The Third Republic. Assembly regime or “inauthentic” parliamentary regime? André Siegfried or Robert Redslob

Abstract

Two great contemporary scholars debate the form of government of the Third Republic, the only long-lasting “parliamentary republic” between the 19th and 20th centuries. André Siegfried takes a largely positive view of a regime in which, since 1877, the power to dissolve the Chamber (provided for in the Constitution) has no longer been exercised, while the Chambers retain the power to bring down governments. Robert Redslob, instead, deems “inauthentic” a parliamentary form of government lacking the balance of the no-confidence-dissolution mechanism, an "absolute parliamentarism" in which government crises are never resolved by appealing to the people.

Keywords: Constitutional history; Orleanist monarchy; Parliamentary government; No confidence/dissolution mechanism; Popular sovereignty