THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY - CONCEPTUALIZING PRESIDENTIAL POWER IN THE 5THREPUBLIC

One of the main tasks of those who study French politics is to explain the source of presidential power in the Fifth Republic. In French, tw o rival explanations have emerged: the state power thesis and the majo rity power thesis. For the former, presidential power is structural, b eing derived from the organization of the state. For the latter, it is conjunctural, being dependent on the nature of the parliamentary majo rity. The aim of this article is twofold. It introduces an English-spe aking audience to the two existing explanations of presidential power. It also proposes an alternative explanation drawn from the recent lit erature of new institutionalism. An institutional explanation combines the strengths of the two existing approaches and provides a future re search agenda for the study of presidential power in France.