Why the French Fourth Republic Was so Unstable - Essay Example

Why the French Fourth Republic (1946-1958) was so unstable Introduction The Fourth Republic of France became into existence in a period between 1946-1958 just immediately after the Second World War. This Republic was characterized with numerous problems, which eventually rendered it ungovernable. The problems ranged from Algerian uprising against the oppression from French government, the Indochina crisis, the divided parliament, and the weak constitution which could not provide for a powerful executive but provided for a very powerful legislature. The Republic was also characterized by the short duration of stay by the cabinets as a result of high turnover. For example during the period of this regime, which lasted for twelve years, they had already had about twenty four cabinets with Prime Ministers totalling to sixteen. The high turnover was an indication that there were issues with the government. According to Woldendrop, Keman and Budge (1998), leaders in the coalition government were very incapable of addressing problems that France was facing. This essay is going to establish how the above mentioned factors contributed to the instability of the Fourth Republic. The reasons why the French Fourth Republic was so unstable One of the reasons why the Fourth Republic could not stand was the Algerian conflict of independence which took place in 1954-1962. Algeria, being one of the French colonies wanted its independence and freedom. On the other hand the colonial government of France was not willing to let go of that colony.The push for independence by the Algerian freedom fighters created some tension, which eventually culminated in an ugly violence against the French forces. The freedom fighters resorted to guerilla war tactics, which resulted on both sides of the civilian being killed and wounded. The French forces could not also retaliate in full force thus this war was a great loss to the French since the French government was forced to utilize its meager resources in the form of finances and manpower. Similarly, the French government concentrated more and spent much of its time on this war at the expense of its development agenda. This conflict in Algeria led to loss of lives among the French and many succumbed to injuries (about 92,000 people died and 114,000 were injured). Moreover, some cabinet members were unhappy with the manner in which, this conflict was being treated. This discontentment created a rift among the cabinet. For example, the communists who were in the coalition government left the alliance thus making the cabinet and the entire government unstable. The French forces also lost morale and could not fight effectively to defend their colony. Consequently, this compounded to the defeat of the French forces in Algeria. This war contributed to the weak economy of France since a large portion of government expenditure was being directed to this war. As a result of this the running of the government business became difficult and therefore the instability of the fourth republic became inevitable. The second possible reason why the Fourth Republic of France was unstable was the effects of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which was the conflict of the first Indochina war that took place between the French Republic and the communists revolutionaries. According to The New Encyclopedia (2002), the term Indochina simply refers to the coming together between Indians and Chinese under the influence of culture and religion. To elaborate further, Indochina comprised of the three states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They were formerly under the control of French Empire. Therefore, Indochina wars were series of historical battles that took place in Asia between 1946 to 1989.The first Indochina war was fought between Indochinese forces against the French and was referred to as the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. This battle between the French and the its three colonies erupted after a party known as Viet Minh under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam staged an uprising seeking for full independence. The other two colonies followed suit and the fighting began. Consequently, the French was defeated and forced to pull out its forces from Indochina. This war became so expensive to the French Republic since it exploited the little resources that French would have utilized in other development projects in the country such as developing its infrastructure. Consequently, it forced the government to rely on external financial support, which resulted in the citizens losing trust on their government and could not support its leadership any more. The third reason why the Fourth Republic of France became so unstable was the division among the coalition parties. There was disagreement and contention among the political parties that formed the coalition .The Fourth Republic comprised of different small political parties which could not win the election with the required threshold of votes on their own. In order to form government, theses small parties were forced to form coalitions. Unfortunately, each party pursued their own interests and agenda thus making it difficult for them to agree on particular policies and agenda. This kind of wrangling in parliament obscured the parliamentarian’s visions from debating and passing any substantial motions since these leaders were only interested in defending the interest of their own political parties thus frustrating the national agenda. The open rebellion among the French settlers in Algeria which was supported by the military against the appointment of Pierre Pflimlin the then prime minister for allegedly doing little on the Algerian conflict, contributed to the unstable government when the army went ahead to dictate the composition of the government. This led into the final instability of the regime (Knapp, 2006). The fourth reason why the Fourth Republic was unstable was because of the division among the military. The coalition government influenced the actions and leadership of the army in that, divisions arose within the military and the military could only act according to the wishes of the three parties within the coalition. For example lack of unity and coordination could be partly blamed for their defeat in the Algerian war as well as the French Indochina war. Others blamed their humiliations from the Algerian freedom fighters on the poor leadership within the military. There was also lack of trust in the military leaders since it was perceived that some military officers were serving the interest of the rival communist who were still in the coalition government. There rival group in parliament were opposed to most of the government efforts to maintain their colonial power in Algeria. The Fifth reason was the unstable cabinet, which lacked consensus on matters of policy and therefore contributing to the instability of the Fourth French Republic. Most of the cabinet ministers were pulling out from the government some resigning while others being fired was an indication of unstable government. Having too many prime ministers and cabinet ministers within a period of twelve years was unproductive for a government to implement its development agenda. This only meant that a number of policy issues and projects were being interrupted due to frequent appointments of new leaders. The Communists ministers, who were perceived as being a threat to the government were dismissed, which eventually led to strikes and political unrest in the country thereby creating a stalemate to the economy (Huber, 2004). Lastly, the current constitution which was in use was very problematic since it did not provide for a powerful executive to govern. Charles De Gaulle who was to become the prime minister in the next regime agitated for the drafting of a new constitution claiming that one of the shortcomings of the Fourth Regime was that the constitution provided for a weaker executive but with a powerful parliament. He accepted the premiership under the condition that he should be given special authority to come up with a new constitution. Woldendorp, et al. (1998), argued that the Third Republic did not have provisions in its institutions to allow for effective exercising of leadership during a time of crisis such as the ones experienced during the Algerian and Indochina conflicts. Conclusion It is now evident that indeed the French Fourth Republic suffered quite a number of setbacks, which attributed to its final collapse in 1958. The most prominent one being the Algerian War, which claimed the lives of both armed forces and the civilians from both sides. This war was also costly to the French government in terms of funding. This adversely affected its economy, which was already unstable. In addition, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu destabilized the French economy by slowing the economic growth since very little economic activities could take place during war. Lack of co-operation among the coalition parties led to inconsistence in policymaking and implementation of the same. The high cabinet turnover also affected the leadership. Finally, the existing constitution was not effective enough since it did not give the executive power to rule. It also had a gap whereby it was difficult to exercise effective leadership and direction during crisis such as wars and conflicts. References Huber. (2004). Cabinet Instability and the accumulation of experience. The French Fourth and Fifth Republics in comparative perspective. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press The New Encyclopedia Britannica (2002).Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Knapp A. (2006).The government and politics of France (5th Edition) London, UK: Rouledge Wakeman R. (2011). The Fourth Republic: History, values, Debates, Cornel University Press Williams, P. M. (1964) Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic, London, Longman Woldendorp, J Keman, H and Budge, I (1998)‘Party Government in 20 Democracies’, European Journal of Political Research,33(,125–64). Read More