France in need of a Sixth Republic

Institutional fatigue and fiscal drift are reshaping France’s political economy and creating investment opportunities

France has long treated its politics as an experiment in constitutional design. Since the fall of the monarchy in 1792, the country has rewritten its governing framework fifteen times, more than any other major democracy. Each constitution emerged from crisis: the revolutionary assemblies of 1789, the authoritarian order of Napoleon, the fragile coalitions of the Third and Fourth Republics, and finally the centralized power of the Fifth. The French state has never stood still. It has swung between the search for stability and the fear of tyranny, between the promise of reform and the memory of collapse.

Today, the same question that faced de Gaulle in 1958 has returned. Can France still be governed under its current system? What began as a fringe idea, the creation of a Sixth Republic, is creeping into the mainstream debate. Political paralysis, a weakened presidency, and a sense of deep social fragmentation have eroded confidence in the ruling class. Increasingly, it feels as though t…