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date: 25 February 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter presents the intriguing puzzle of French constitutional politics: a spectacular increase in judicialization of French politics in the context of a flexible constitution and a politicized Constitutional Council. The state of the art is reviewed first at the international level and then within France in terms of both theory-building and empirical understanding of amending constitutions, judicialization of politics, and politicization of constitutional review. The French case, thus, provides an important case for developing comparative theory on constitutional politics and will remain a promising area of inquiry for many years to come. The chapter points to three promising areas of inquiry: the relationships between the types of government control and constitutional amendments, the patterns of judicialization, and the legitimacy of the role of constitutional review.

Keywords: constitutional politics, French constitutionalism, comparative constitutions, judicialization, constitutional review, Fifth Republic Constitution, constitutional amendments, Constitutional Council

Sylvain Brouard

Sylvain Brouard is Associate Research Professor FNSP at CEVIPOF, Sciences Po. His research focuses on comparative politics, institutions, electoral competition, and agenda studies. His publications include As French As Everyone (Temple University Press, 2011 with V. Tiberj), The French Fifth Republic at Fifty(Palgrave, 2008, with A. Appleton and A. G. Mazur), Les Français contre l’Europe? (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2007, with N. Sauger and E. Grossman), and numerous articles in peer review journals.

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