Cumul des mandats

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The cumul des mandats , literally translated as the "accumulation of terms", is a political practice that has evidenced itself in modern French politics. It is the practice of holding several political offices at multiple levels of government. This can cover a wide array of elected offices in a combination of two or more, encompassing local, regional, and national levels: mayors of towns, deputies in the National Assembly, senators, members of the European Parliament, and chairmen of the conseil général in their home regions.[1] Sometimes, officials hold as many as four positions.[2] While officials cannot hold multiple offices in the same level (like Deputy and Senator), they can hold offices in any combination of the communal, départmental, regional, national, and European levels.

[edit] Purpose and frequency

The purpose of holding multiple offices is several-fold. Holding a national or European position in the Senate, National Assembly, or European Parliament gave local mayors a valuable method of tapping funds to develop their home cities and regions.[3] It also can give many opportunities to curry favor with other important officials, with opportunities at each level.[4] Salaries for positions can be combined to a point as well, for greater wage compensation as an additional reward for building a political safety net.[5] And for politicians with national ambitions, retaining a position in a local town can give them a down-to-earth aura that can appeal to voters. These advantages have made politicians very wary of reducing the practice of the cumul with legislation despite other moves to end perceptions of favoritism and corruption among politicians.[6]

The cumul is a widespread practice and has grown much more prevalent in modern France. In 1946, 36 percent of deputies in the National Assembly held an additional office.[7] By 1956, this number had already increased to 42 percent.[8] In 1970, 70 percent of deputies held additional elected office; in 1988, 96 percent did.[9]

Many of the most prominent politicians in France make use or have made use of the cumul. Jacques Chirac served as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. During this same time, Chirac also served as a deputy in the National Assembly from Corrèze, a deputy in the European Parliament, and even as Prime Minister from 1984 to 1986.[10] Ségolène Royal, the 2007 Socialist candidate for the French Presidency, currently serves as both the president of the Poitou-Charentes region and as a deputy to the National Assembly from Deux-Sèvres. Former Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy served concurrently as mayor of Nevers and deputy of Nièvre in the mid-1980s. There is widespread acceptance of this practice among French politicians and without legislation, the cumul is likely to continue.

[edit] Recent and current status of cumul in the French government

Lionel Jospin (Prime Minister from 1997 to 2002) imposed to his government ministers a non-written rule of having no local term. For example, Catherine Trautmann stepped down from mayor of Strasbourg (while remaining a member of the city council) to become Minister of Culture; conversely, Martine Aubry stepped down from the Ministry of Labour when elected mayor of Lille in 2001. This rule was more or less upheld by Jacques Chirac for the governments of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin for the 2002-2007 term, with a few notable exceptions (Jean-François Copé was mayor of Meaux, Nicolas Sarkozy was chairman of the Hauts-de-Seine conseil général); for instance, Philippe Douste-Blazy had to step down from the Toulouse mayorship.

As of 2007, no such rule was stated for the François Fillon government: Alain Juppé, the former Minister for Development, government no.2, was mayor of Bordeaux before resigning from both offices upon being defeated in his run for deputyship (a third cumulative mandate) by 50.9% to 40.1% of the votes by the socialist candidate. Additionally, Hervé Morin, the Minister of Defence, is mayor of Épaignes, and Éric Besson, Secretary of State for Economic Prospective and Evaluation of Public Policies, is the mayor of Donzère.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gidea, Robert (2002). France Since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 240. ISBN 0-19-219246-9. 
  2. ^ Nadeau, Jean-Benoît; Julie Barlow (2003). Sixty million Frenchmen can't be wrong : why we love France but not the French. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, pg. 56. ISBN 1-4022-0045-5. 
  3. ^ Gildea, pg. 240
  4. ^ Nadeau and Barlow, pg. 56
  5. ^ Nadeau and Barlow, pg. 56
  6. ^ Gildea, pg. 281
  7. ^ Gildea, pg. 240
  8. ^ Gildea, pg. 240
  9. ^ Gildea, pg. 240
  10. ^ Nadeau and Barlow, pg. 56
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