Social Choice Lecture 13

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Social ChoiceLecture 13

• Carmen Pasca and John Hey

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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.

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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 Assemblys personnel are
  settled by the Bureaus deliberations.

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Bureau Delegations

• To prepare some of the Bureaus 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 deputys service rules,
• Questions concerning study groups and
  parliamentary offices,
• International activities,
• Computing and new technologies,
• Consideration of the admissibility of Members
  bills.
•  

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Bureau Meetings

• Each of these delegations is presided over by a
  Vice-President who reports his delegations
  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
  Assemblys website, of a list of decisions, some
  of which are published in the Journal officiel
  (Official Gazette).

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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.

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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).

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The Chairmens Conference 1

• The Chairmens Conference, created back in 1911,
  mainly intervenes in setting the Assemblys work
  schedule. 
• Unlike the Bureau, it does not result directly
  from a vote by the deputies.

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The Chairmens 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 Chairmens
  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 Chairmens Conference by one of its members,
  customarily the minister tasked with relations
  with Parliament.

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The Chairmens Conference 3

• At first sight, since 1958 the Conferences role
  has no longer been more than executory.
• At its weekly meeting, it examines the
  Assemblys 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 Assemblys 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 Governments request, which
  forms the complementary agenda.

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The Chairmens 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 Chairmens
  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.

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The Chairmens 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 Chairmens 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.

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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.

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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 Assemblys 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.

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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.

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Group Chairmen

• Group chairmen, who are ex officio members of the
  Chairmens 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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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 300 p.m. to 400 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.

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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.

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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. 

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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

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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.

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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.

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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?