The government of France, which is a secular, democratic and social republic, is governed by a set of rules known as their constitution and enforced by what they refer to as The French Fifth Republic or La Cinquième République Française.
The constitution was drafted by former Prime Minister Michel Debré and adopted on October 4, 1958 by former President Charles de Gaulle. As with many governments in the world, France’s three separate by equal branches, the executive, legislative and judicial branches comprise this country of 26 régions, consisting of 100 départements and 65.5 million residents.
Each département is overseen by its own conseil général who speaks for the residents within the département. Ultimately, laws are passed on a national level, with each conseil général having the ability to influence but not alter or legislate.
Unlike the United States, France is unified in the sense that laws in Nice are the same as those in Paris, Lyon and Brittany. Indeed, each département as well as the arrondissements may pass ordinances, such as those pertaining to noise, parking and similar local issues.
An arrondissement may best be described as being similar to a neighborhood in the US. The difference being that the boundaries between one neighborhood in a US city may vary depending upon who you are talking with. An arrondissement’s boundaries are well-defined.
Each of the 100 département has a its own 2-digit number and if you have looked on a French license plate and wondered why the majority of cars in Marseille have a 20 on their license plate, while those in Loire-Atlantique have a 12 in theirs, that’s why.
Given that France is far older than the US, many of their laws, while seemingly illogical to an American, have both a practical and historical bases for them. Many for example, laws around buying and selling a home or willing it to one’s inheritors, date back to the time of Napoléon Bonaparte. This is one of many examples of laws that may not make sense to an American, but are perfectly understood and followed to the letter of the law by a French person.
