Some silver lining. Looking at the Parliament for a few months, everyone can now see that it has nothing superior to other organs of the State. You will tell me, we already had suspicions, but it is not so true. Almost everyone has shared the same creed for decades: strengthen the assemblies because it is intrinsically good and because it is intrinsically better than everything else. Hear: better than the executive power, the presidency of the Republic, the administrations, the judges, the supervisory authorities, etc.
Basically, there are few who have tried to ask themselves what it would look like for good, a “strong” Parliament, restored to the omnipotence of the fantasized origins of democracy, and to do it in the state in which the realities, namely: the political balance of power of the moment, the quality of the staff, its ability to go beyond its partisan advantages in the service of the general interest, the nature of social demand, the magnitude and gravity of the challenges to be faced face…
For once, given the obscenity of the current orgy – on the form of the debates but also on the merits of the small calculations – it is a little more difficult to miss the question. In truth, we will go through it anyway because we always do it – the political actors know that we reap too many worries not to bow before the sacred parliamentary cow: a reputation as a bad democrat, the accusation to despise the elector… One might as well immolate oneself by fire. But after all, a microscopic window is still opening these days: many of our fellow citizens are saying to themselves that all this is unreasonable and are beginning to wonder whether, all things considered, it would be prudent to leave too much to the Chambers the keys to the state chariot.
Sometimes a light shines
So much the better. The genius of the Fifth Republic came from this lucidity, in the dark soul of General de Gaulle disgusted by the smallness of political parties, instructed by the experience of collective deliberation elsewhere than in books and devoid of any illusion about the average ability of elected officials to surpass themselves. The lessons of history are always good to learn.
It would be wrong, however, to sink into a systematic anti-parliamentarianism. Both because there too we have some retrospective lessons to show us the danger, but also because it would be unfair. Even in these lamentable times, it happens that a little light shines: adult deliberation, a fruitful manoeuvre, judicious and seriously carried out investigative work, a moment of grace… All is not atrocious and we see even, here and there, a few individualities worthy of great esteem are revealed.
But the main thing is not there. The real lesson is that there is no good institution per se. Just as local communities are irrelevant and the state out of step, the legislature is good and the executive bad. The traditional left had succeeded in making people believe the opposite. The right followed suit at the cost of a spectacular DNA reversal – normally, we rather like the idea of the leader. But none of that was ever worth much. Modern democracies have an equal need for all “powers”, their existence, their separation, their mutual ability to limit each other, the ability of each of them to exercise the functions assigned to them, and finally to their ability to work together for the common good.
magical thinking
It was thought in the 18th century that a good Constitution should work despite everything. Hear: despite the mediocrity of people, their madness or their dishonesty. It is because men are not up to the task that institutions must be solid and skilfully designed. But none of them holds this virtue in itself and even less in essence. It is the system which they form together which produces, or not, an acceptable government of the country and, if possible, the happiness of its inhabitants.
The idealization of Parliament is wishful thinking. It proceeds from a guilty amnesia, from a deception on the goods and from a fundamental infantilism. Let us rejoice that these sad days bring us at least the material for a very useful disenchantment.