Introduction

France needed a new constitution due to political instability in the Fourth Republic
Period (1946-1958), and with the adoption of the "1958 Constitution", which was prepared
under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle, the Fifth Republic Period started in
France. The new constitution's primary goal is to prevent the political instabilities that
previously lived in France and create a strong executive against the legislature for a strong
France. The aim of this study is to provide the regional organization of the state in the light of
the effect of the state and government form, legal regulations and the influential role of the
Supreme Constitutional Court, which started with the 1958 Constitution.
               Looking at the historical development in general; Between the 16th and the 18th
centuries, France had a state structure governed by an absolute monarchy. The French
monarchy ended with the French Revolution of 1789, and the "old regime" was destroyed,
replaced by "new regime" established on the basis of the principles of equality and freedom.
It took a long time for the new regime established based on the principles of freedom and
equality to achieve political stability, and France witnessed many political events and turmoil
in this process. This process has led to many constitutional changes. For these reasons, the
history of the French Constitution is considered as the richest and most contradictory history
in the world. The main reason for the transition to the Fifth Republic Period, which started
with the Constitution of 1958, was the political instability experienced during the Fourth
Republic Period. Political polarization and division made the Parliament's legislative
activities difficult. The transition from the Fourth Republic to the Fifth Republic is basically a
transition caused by the struggle for independence in Algeria. The Algerian uprising took
place on May 13, 1958, brought the end of the Fourth Republic period. The independence
movements that took place in Algeria, which was a part of France during that period, gained
momentum in 1954, and the French army, which could not control the situation, carried out
the coup on May 13, 1958, with the help of the commanders in Algeria. This coup did not
provide a solution to the independence movements and caused the problems to get deeper.
During a speech by Charles de Gaulle on May 15, 1958, Gaulle declared that France was
heading towards disintegration and that he was ready to take on the responsibilities of the
Republic. French Government decided to leave the power to Charles de Gaulle. 
               On June 1, 1958, the government led by Charles de Gaulle started working on
regime change and was appointed by the Parliament to prepare a new constitution. Although
many constitutional experts and ministers worked during the preparation of the 1958
Constitution, Charles de Gaulle is seen as the "founding father" of the Fifth Republic. The
Constitution, which was accepted with 80% of the votes as a result of the referendum held on
September 28, 1958, entered into force on October 4, 1958, and started the Fifth Republic
Period in France.
               The 1958 Constitution has been changed 24 times since its adoption. While some of
these changes are significant, many have only been made up of adjustments to minor
technical details. The regulations made in 2008, which can be considered as the most
important of these, eliminated the constitutional gap regarding whether the presidents would
be re-elected and brought the rule that the presidents could be elected twice in a row. One of
the changes made within the scope of the 2008 amendments is the regulation that requires the
President to consult with the Parliament on many appointments. Although the regulations
made other than these are not essential to change the quality of the system, the death penalty
has been abolished with these changes, and some rules have been introduced regarding
gender equality.

Form of State and Form of Government

               France is a democratic social state with a Republican form of government. The head
of state of France, which consists of more than twenty administrative departments, about a
hundred departments and tens of thousands of communes, is the President.
               The President, whose powers and duties are regulated between Articles 5 and 18 of
the 1958 Constitution, ensures that the Constitution is respected and, based on his powers of
arbitration, acts as a guarantor of the continuity of the state and the regular operation of
public forces.

The Election of the President

              As a result of the constitutional changes that took place on November 6 1962, the
election method of the President was declared as a one-stage election. The single-level
electoral system is in the form of a rule for direct election of the President by the people. The
direct election of the President by universal suffrage and single-level election system is
described as the most basic and distinctive feature of the Fifth Republic Period. The French
political system, which has the characteristics of the parliamentary system with the 1958
Constitution, turned into a "semi-presidential" system as a result of this change.
              According to the 1958 Constitution, no one can hold the Presidency for two
consecutive terms. The President of the Republic is elected by the mere childhood of the
votes cast as a result of the election. If this majority of votes cannot be achieved in the first
round of voting, the second round is held on the fourteenth day following the elections. As
stated in Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution, the two candidates with the highest votes in the
first round can participate in this second round.

President’s Powers and Duties

              These duties are stated in articles 8 and 9 of the constitution; To appoint the Prime
Minister, to terminate his office upon the submission of the Government's resignation by the
Prime Minister, to appoint other members of the Government upon the proposal of the Prime
Minister, to dismiss these persons and to chair the Council of Ministers.
              The President is the person responsible for approving and promulgating laws that
have been finally adopted. This strictly accepted law approval process, which is called
"Promulgation" process, has been subjected to a period of time. Before the end of this period,
the President has the right to ask the Parliament to re-debate the articles. As seen in Article 10
of the Constitution, this request of the President for a re-debate is not rejected by the
Parliament, and as it is understood from Article 11, the President has the power to submit
some draft laws to a referendum.
              As mentioned in Articles 12-15, after receiving the opinion of the President, Prime
Minister and the Speakers of the Assembly; May have the authority and duties such as
dissolving the National Assembly, signing the decrees and decisions discussed in the Council
of Ministers, making the appointment of the civil and military duties of the state, accepting
the ambassador and extraordinary credentials sent to foreign countries, being the head of the
armed forces, and chairing the National Defense High Council and Committees. .
              As stated in Article 16 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic, when the
institutions of the Republic, the independence of the nation and the integrity of the country or
the fulfilment of international treaties are seriously and urgently threatened, and the regular
functioning of the public constitutional authorities is interrupted, the President, the Prime
Minister, the Presidents of the Assemblies and the Constitutional Council will take the
necessary measures of the situation after a consultant.
              Article 20: The main task of the government is to determine and carry out national
policy. The administration and the armed forces can be used within this executive power.

              Article 21: The President directs the activities of the Government, determines the
implementation of the law and is responsible for national defence. It presides over the
National Defense High Council and Committees by proxy to the President. The real head of
the Council of Ministers in the Fifth Republic is the President.
              The legislative body consists of the Parliament, the National Assembly and the
Senate. The members of the National Assembly, consisting of 577 members, are elected by a
one-level system. Members of the Senate, which consists of 348 members, are elected by
two-stage election. As explained in Article 24 of the Constitution, the senate provides the
representation of local governments in the country, and French citizens residing outside of
France are handed over to the National Assembly and the Senate. No member of the
Parliament may be arrested, searched or tried for any crime or misdemeanour without the
consent of the Assembly.

Judicial review of legislation and role of the supreme/constitutional court      

              France, which has experienced five major constitutions since the French Revolution
of 1789 until today, is governed by the 5th Republic Constitution (French Constitution of
1958) prepared and adopted by General De Gaulle.
              De Gaulle, the forerunner of the 1958 Constitution; both IV. He developed the semi-
presidential system, which is the combination of the classical presidential system of the US
type and the British parliamentary system, in order not to repeat the situations of the
executive in the Republican period and to eliminate the obstacles to the separation of powers
that would hinder his own style (Roskin, 2014: 123).
              Although this system developed is not the first application of the semi-presidency
system, it constitutes the most effective and known example of today's semi-presidential
system.
              In an article published in 1971, Duverger introduced the regime under this name,
using the concept of semi-presidency first used by a French journalist Hubert Beuve-Méry1
in 1959. This system, which is named as a presidential-parliamentary system,

Territorial Organization of France

There are four levels of regional management:

- State (central government)
- Communes (districts)
- Departments (districts)
- Regions
Communes, divisions, and regions are administrative management tools for both central
government and decentralized regional units. In order to have a better understanding of these
levels it is essential to examine them individually.

1- The Communes
Today, there are about 36,500 communes in France. Communes are the first tier of
the French administrative organization. Their sizes vary from small villages to large towns.
Every commune, with the exception of Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the areas that have a
special status, is governed by a municipal council chaired by its own ruler called the mayor.
Members of the municipal council under the management of the communes are elected every
six years by universal suffrage.
The members of the municipal council in France are elected for a period of 6 year
by universal suffrage. The number of members these councils have depends on the
population of the commune. The task of the municipal councils is to carry out the affairs of
the commune, which is under the jurisdiction of the mayor and deputy elected by the council
members. The major also carries the responsibility of representing the state along with its
other functions such as executing the decisions given by the municipal council and proposing
the commune’s budget and making sure that the budget is applied correctly. The major is also
responsible for managing the commune’s administrative workers as well as making sure that
the people in the commune are safe and serene.
Major is also considered as an “officer of the police judiciaries” because of his or
her role as the representative of the state. In order to fulfil this role, the major acts under the
authority of the public prosecutor and he or she is responsible from performing tasks such as
noting legal offences and receiving complaints.

2- The Departments

The French Republic has 100 departments, 96 of which are in its territory and 4 are
overseas. These departments consist of both administrative and regional units. Administrative
departments; It consists of government wills, governor's services, and ministerial services
provided by various ministers. The representative of the departments is appointed by the
government and its duties can be listed as maintaining public order and security, verifying the
implementation of orders issued by the government.

The general council, which is the body of elected representatives, is in charge of

administering the departments as they are part of the territorial units. The councillors and
heads of the departmental authorities elect the general council’s president and the president is
in charge of preparing and implementing the decisions given by the council as well as
collecting and spending the money for the council. Furthermore, the president is also
equipped with police powers and the right to present the department in legal cases. The
general councillors are elected for a six year period for a particular canton and this is a
renewable term for the councillors. Each canton is responsible from electing a general
councillor and the number of cantons may vary according to the size of the population of the
department.

Some of the main tasks of the general council can be listed as; using a vote on the
departmental budget and fixing the level of rates as well as the council tax, taking care of the
heritage of the department, which includes looking after and maintaining the lower secondary
schools, particular roads and forests. The sanitation and health and social services are also
parts of the responsibilities of the council and these entries make up almost the 30 percent of
the total budget. It is also general council’s responsibility to build and equip lower secondary
schools, museums, libraries and department archives. The city council is also expected to
play a significant economic role in financing farms and businesses to improve themselves.
Lastly, providing financial support to public organizations such as chambers of commerce is
also within the responsibilities of city council.

3- The Regions

The French Republic is divided into 18 regions, with 12 country territories and 6
lands in other countries. These regions are divided between major cities located in the
European continent and overseas regions located outside the European continent. Each of the
18 regions of the French Republic has the same status and no one region is superior to
another. The current form of the regions were established by the 1982 law on
decentralization.
Each district is governed by a regional council that is elected every six years by
universal suffrage. Each regional council is chaired by a president elected by the council
members. These members and the president are assisted by a social and economic committee
that is constituted by company representatives, trade unions, liberal professions and other
regional associations. However, Corsica carries a different and special status as the assembly
of Corsica is equipped with additional authorities.
The main areas in which the regional council has jurisdiction are: - regional
planning; Transportation; economic development; in-service training; planning, construction,
renovation and operating costs of high school, research centers, archives and museums.
Regional councils have the full authority of making decisions in all these areas. However, the
state, as it can act as the chief of police, preserves the jurisdiction in areas that concern the
defence of the region, law, foreign affairs and higher education.
There are four different sources where the regional councils can obtain their income
from and these sources can be listed as; “direct taxation in the form of taxes d'habitation
(council tax), foncière (property tax), and professionnelle (business rates); indirect taxation
(driving licences and road tax); State subsidies; and borrowing.” The budgets of counties
(departments) and districts (communes) are larger than the budgets of the regions; however
the regional budgets tend to be showing an upward trend in the recent years. The budgets of
the regions are often used for public benefits such as implementing schemes for agriculture,
environmental spending, providing social improvements for areas that are less fortunate,
sports and keeping the cultural heritage. However, performing all these tasks can be often
more expensive than expected which can cause some increases in the taxes.
Recently regions have taken the responsibility of ensuring sustainable development
and planning and under this scope, each region is responsible from making their own plans
for its operations in the sectors of “land management, urban zoning, controlling the pollution,
finding sustainable clean energy sources, providing housing to the population of the region
and waste management.” It is also the responsibility of the regions to control “their public
school systems, professional training programmes, higher education and public transport.”
However, these cannot be considered as the responsibilities that solely belong to the regions.
Thus, the regions share part of these responsibilities, particularly the ones related to culture,
sports, tourism and regional languages, with the internal departments of the regions.

Conclusion

It has been understood that the French Constitution, which entered into force on October 4,
1958, is a thesis and ideological text that is seriously devoted to human rights and principles
of national sovereignty. The French Constitution laid down clear rules for France and
emphasized the immunity of other countries. It can be said that the French Constitution’s
Article 1 and Article 89 have been the sources of inspiration for the Articles 2 and 4 of the
Constitution of the Republic of Turkey. As mentioned in Article 1, "France is an indivisible,
secular, democratic and social republic." and Article 89. "No method of change can be
defended or put forward that would harm the territorial integrity. The republic form of the
regime cannot be subject to change." These two articles have been the emerging point for the
articles 2 and 4 in Constitution of the Republic of Turkey. From my perspective, French
constitution has had an influential effect not only on the constitution of Turkish Republic but
also many other countries thanks to the importance it gives to human rights, national
sovereignty and social order.