Political Differences Between France And The United States

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France is a very different country than the United States in many many ways: culturally, economically, politically, etc. Even though both of these countries are democratic they have very different processes when it comes to elections and the parties present are very different. France's modern day political structure came out of a crisis in 1958. In 1958 the French government was debating on how to deal with the Algerian uprisings that were happening, these uprisings are not anything new because they've been going on since 1954. The problems arose when when France started to give independence to Morocco and Tunisia, which neighbored Algeria. France's logic for not giving Algeria independence was that a large number of French settlers lived there, 1/10 of the population, so it should stay a French colony. France saw it's only alternative to more violence was to place a strong leader as prime minister; General Charles de Gaulle, the man who lead the “Free French” forces in resistance against the Nazis and their collaborators, became prime minister in 1959 helped establish a hybrid system of government, a system of government that had a strong executive branch with parliamentary features. A common occurrence in this form of government is called “cohabitation.” Cohabitation happens …show more content…
France's National Assembly has 5 different parties: the Union for a Popular Movement (313 seats), Socialist Party (186 seats), Democratic Movement (3 seats), French Communist Party (15 seats), The Greens (4 seats), and the New Centre (22 seats) (NSD 2010). This allows for a wide range of representation for people on the right, left, and middle. Unlike America where you have to chose between the moderate Democratic party and the right wing Republicans. So if you somebody with strong left wing views you are not represented well, or at