Research Note

Who are the deputies of the Fifth Republic? Some figures Abel Franc¸oisa,* and Emiliano Grossmanb a

EM Strasbourg Business School, Strasbourg University (LaRGE) and Telecom Paristech (dep. ESS), 47 avenue de la Foreˆt Noire 67802 Strasbourg Cedex 7, France. b Sciences Po, Centre d’Etudes Europe´ennes, 27 rue Saint Guillaume 75337 Paris Cedex 7, France.

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*Corresponding author.

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Abstract This research note describes the population of the French members

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of the Assemble´e Nationale (deputies) from the beginning of the Fifth Republic. Through a statistical analysis of the makeup of 13 legislatures (from 1958 to 2007), it, on the one hand, provides a portrait of the deputies, and, on the other hand, describes the evolution over time of the deputies. At first glance, it appears that the presence of women in the Assemble´e Nationale is quite recent and, second, that the generational effects are more or less linked to political alternations. Third, despite the progressive disappearance of certain professions, the socioprofessional structure is particularly stable, and, fourth, the renewal of deputies is very circumstantial. Finally, they rarely abandon office during their term in legislature. French Politics (2011) 9, 364–380. doi:10.1057/fp.2011.15

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Keywords: members of parliament; Assembly; legislative representation; political elite; deputy

Introduction Trying to characterize French deputies under the Fifth Republic entails two principal issues. The first issue is linked to the similarities of the traits of these elected officials with regard to the French population as a whole. Are they representative of the French population or, on the contrary, do they represent a group that is both socially and economically homogeneous and distinct from the voters, monopolizing power within the state? It is hard to answer this r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419 French Politics www.palgrave-journals.com/fp/

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question given the different possible definitions of representation by deputies (Manin, 1996; Mansbridge, 2003). Although certain authors highlight the imperative of organic representation, meaning a sociological concordance between the elected and the voters1, most contemporary definitions insist on the relationship between the voters’ mandate or the party platform and program. The second issue is linked to this contemporary perspective and deals with the parallel between the evolutions of the Fifth Republic both in its constitutional organization and in its practice. Since 1958, the political and legislative practices within the National Assembly have changed considerably.2 Has this evolution been similar to the evolution of the attributes of deputies? This analysis does not claim to resolve these debates, but instead seeks to provide an innovative perspective by presenting the principal characteristics of French deputies in the Fifth Republic. It completes the different works that already exist on the characteristics of the National Assembly. As such, our study is more exhaustive in the characteristics studied and deals with a much longer period than that of Costa and Kerrouche (2007). Moreover, it focuses specifically on the Fifth Republic contrary to the study by Best and Gaxie (2000). It also offers an aggregate analysis of the characteristics of the legislatures rather than an analysis of the individual electoral performances of the deputies over a single election, such as in Sineau and Tiberj’s study (2007), or over a very long period, such as in the article by Loonis (2006). In addition, our research note looks exclusively at those deputies elected and not simply candidates at legislative elections (Franc¸ois, 2009). Finally, we attempt to take into account the totality of the traits of the deputies without focusing on one single trait such as age (Chauvel, 2007) or certain professional profiles (Costa and Kerrouche, 2007). In order to do this, we rely on a comprehensive data set extracted, for the most part, from historical biographical data available on the National Assembly website3 that we complemented with a certain amount of additional information. This information brings together the deputies of the 13 legislatures of the Fifth Republic.4 They are the deputies elected during general elections (and not by-elections), and, as a result, they have already completed two hurdles: any investiture process by their political party and the voters’ choice. The research note first considers the portrait of the deputies of the Fifth Republic. Then, we present a more dynamic analysis in order to highlight the main trends in the evolution of their characteristics since 1958.

A Portrait of a Deputy of the Fifth Republic On the basis of the data collected, we can present a typical portrait of those elected to the French National Assembly. r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419

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The Fifth Republic deputy is above all male, given that 94 per cent of those elected over the period are men. They are born in metropolitan France (92 per cent of deputies), and, on average, they are 52 years old at the time of election. For 83 per cent of them5, they were elected at the second round of the election and belong more to a right-wing or centrist political group (61 per cent) rather than to the left.6 For one of every two deputies, the electoral district lies within the department of their place of birth. Deputies complete between two and three mandates during their career (2.4 on average). They are often a civil servant or executive. Finally, they almost always complete their term because most only lose their seat because of an election: only 13 per cent of them do not finish their term.7 In the following, we try to grasp whether these traits are shared by the entire population of deputies and whether they are stable across time and across political parties. In other words, we will investigate whether there are any hidden differences and/or profound transformations of the population of deputies in the last 40 years. We look first at gender, then age and the generational effects before we focus on the socio-professional origins on the survival of elected officials and the renewal of the Assembly.

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The Difficult Ascent of Women

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Although not invariant of French political process, the fraction of women in the National Assembly remains marginal (Figure 1). We clearly observe an increase from the sixth legislature (1978) onwards, in which for the first time they represent more than 3 per cent of those elected. Over the course of the following four legislatures (the seventh to the tenth legislatures), the proportion stabilized at around 5 per cent. It doubled during the eleventh legislature (1997), when the Gauche Plurielle (Plural Left) won, and it has increased regularly since, notably due to the implementation of the ‘parity law’, which was first applied at the 2002 legislative elections.8 In the last legislature, the proportion was a little more than 17 per cent. In terms of political groups (Figure 2), it is generally the left that has elected the most women. There are two exceptions, the ninth (1988) and tenth (1993) legislatures in which the left had a similar if not smaller proportion to that of the center or the right. This is at least partially due to the renewal of candidates, which is generally more complete if an electoral victory is preceded by a defeat in the previous election. Nevertheless, there does not seem to be a link between the fraction of women and the rate of election of the candidates by political group given that majority legislatures do not translate into higher levels of women, as is the case of the right in 1986 or the left in 1988. 366

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1 (5 st l 8- eg 62 ) 2n (6 d 2- leg 67 ) 3r (6 d l 7- eg 68 ) 4t (6 h l 8- eg 73 ) 5t (7 h l 3- eg 78 ) 6t (7 h l 8- eg 81 ) 7t (8 h l 1- eg 86 ) 8 (8 th l 6- eg 88 ) 9t (8 h l 8- eg 93 ) 10 (9 th 3- le 97 g ) 11 (9 th 7- le 02 g ) 12 (0 th 2- le 07 g ) 13 (0 th 7- le 12 g )

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Proportion of women (%) 0

Figure 1: Proportion of women in the 13 legislatures.

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1 (5 st l 8- eg 62 ) 2n (6 d 2- leg 67 ) 3r (6 d l 7- eg 68 ) 4t (6 h l 8- eg 73 ) 5t (7 h l 3- eg 78 ) 6t (7 h l 8- eg 81 ) 7t (8 h l 1- eg 86 ) 8t (8 h l 6- eg 88 ) 9t (8 h l 8- eg 93 ) 10 (9 th 3- le 97 g ) 11 (9 th 7- le 02 g ) 12 (0 th 2- le 07 g ) 13 (0 th 7- le 12 g )

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Figure 2: Proportion of women in the 13 Assemblies according to political group.

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In terms of international comparison on the role of women in legislative Assemblies, France is ranked sixty-fourth behind, as expected, countries such as Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands, but also behind less likely countries like Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan, Peru or Nepal.9

Age and Generations: The End of the Effect of Political Alternation

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Age shows more variance. Three movements can be distinguished with regard to the average age over the 13 legislatures (Figure 3). The average age increases from the first (1958) to the fifth (1973) legislature, and then it decreases up until the seventh (1981). It then increases continuously to reach its maximum of more than 55 years at the last election (2007). The differences in average age are significant both between legislatures and between political groups (Figure 4). For certain legislatures, it seems that the weaker the parliamentary group, the higher average age within the group. Inversely, a majority group experiences a decrease in average age. This is the case until the seventh legislature (1981). For example, the average age of deputies from the left in 1968 was very high. So too was the average age

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Figure 3: Evolution of average age by legislature. 368

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Figure 4: Average age by legislature and political group.

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for right-wing deputies in 1981. In both cases, the groups were small. But from the eighth legislature (1986) onwards, it is difficult to identify such patterns, and we see more of a convergence of average ages across the groups. In other words, if political alternation on the left seems to play a role in the age factor in 1981, this effect is a lot weaker in 1988 and totally absent in 1997. These differences are seen again if we look at the generational pattern of elected deputies10 (Figures 5 and 6). The prewar generation was in the majority up until the fifth legislature (1973) when the interwar generation became the majority. The baby boomers were in the majority in 1993 (tenth legislature). The interwar generation was in the majority for five legislatures without ever exceeding 63 per cent of the elected officials, with the maximum reached during the sixth legislature (1978). The baby boomer generation has been in the majority for the last four legislatures (1993–2007) and was at its peak in 2002 (twelfth legislature) when it accounted for 74 per cent of those elected. However, the fact that it still represented 72 per cent of deputies in the last legislature (2007) leads us to expect a very gradual decrease in their importance in future Assemblies. These generational evolutions are also reflected within political groups (Figure 6). The ups and downs of generations differ from one group to another. As such, the proportion of elected prewar deputies decreases more r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419

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born before 1920

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Figure 5: Generations of deputies according to legislature.

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Figure 6: Generations of deputies according to legislature and political group. 370

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rapidly among the deputies on the left than those of the right, even if initially they were more numerous on the left than on the right. Inversely, those of the interwar generation are relatively less numerous on the right than on the left and disappear more rapidly within the former group than within the latter. Finally, the baby boomer generation is more numerous on the left than on the right, and the post-baby boom generation is more numerous on the right than on the left. These generational differences can largely be explained by the renewal that the parties have undergone over various elections.

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A Socio-Professionally Stable Assembly

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The professions represented in the Assembly have not significantly evolved (Figure 7). Generally speaking, the fraction of civil servants is significant, if we include academics and teachers (around 25 per cent). However, executives from the private sector are also quite significant and stable (around 13 per cent), as well as liberal professions such as lawyers and doctors. There are no very significant evolutions (Figure 8) throughout the period apart from professional military, who were present in the first legislatures but who have now almost disappeared. Farmers show a similar evolution, but are

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Figure 7: Profession of deputies elected in the Fifth Republic. r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419

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Figure 8: Evolutions of certain professions of deputies of the Fifth Republic.

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still – weakly – present. For the largest categories, the proportions are either very stable, which is the case for lawyers and high-level civil servants, or vary from one legislature to another, which is the case for teachers, depending on the majority political group. Figure 9 illustrates that a similar pattern can be applied to the evolution of professional sectors. After a constant increase during the first legislatures, the proportion of public sector employees stabilized from the fifth legislature (1973) at around 40 per cent and remains the same today. There have nonetheless been important fluctuations, especially when the left came to power in 1981, 1988 and, to a lesser extent, in 1997. Figure 10 confirms the higher proportion of public sector deputies within left-wing parties. However, the long-term dynamic for public sector employees is the same for all political groups.

Renewal and Career: The Importance of the First Election An important issue is the question of the renewal of the Assembly. The sequencing of terms is often seen as a danger for the representativeness of the Assembly, and thus also for the efficiency of the institution. However, we know 372

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Figure 9: Professional sectors of deputies according to legislature.

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that a very rapid renewal weakens the institution and its capacity to fulfill its functions.11 The experience of a number of legislatures generates ‘economies of learning’ that are crucial in representing the voters, control the executive and adopt laws. Figure 11 presents the length of service in terms of the number of terms for each legislature. As we have not taken into account the fourth republic, all of the deputies of the first legislature (1958) are presented as if they were elected for the first time (the ‘first-elected’ deputies thereafter). Only slightly more than half of them are present in the second legislature (1962), 35 per cent in the third (1967) and finally 30 per cent in the fourth (1968). Over and above this ‘founders’ bonus’, renewal was much greater afterwards, even if most of the newly incoming deputies never attained the level of that of the second legislature. In particular, political alternations seem to increase the rate of first-elected deputies.12 Table 1 presents the survival rate of the deputies according to the date of their first election. Globally, the rate of survival diminishes with the increase in the number of legislatures, but it decreases differently depending on the date of the first election. As such, the first-elected deputies of the fourth legislature (1968) see a survival rate that is the weakest of all the following legislatures. On

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Figure 11: Ranking of term according to legislature. 374

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Table 1: Survival rate according to the legislature of the first election Elected for the first time

Survival after y 1 mandate 2 mandates 3 mandates 4 mandates 5 mandates 6 mandates 28.8 18.5 10.7 20.3 21.8 25.2 17.1 13.6 13.7 18.8 24.8

24.6 20.4 6.8 14.8 19.8 25.2 16.8 14.5 18.5 17.5 —

19.2 14.6 3.1 11.7 18.0 5.5 11.0 10.3 12.3 — —

9.6 8.1 3.7 9.0 12.9 9.6 8.9 6.6 — — —

6.5 6.0 2.5 4.3 9.4 3.5 3.5 — — — —

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Second legislature (62–67) Third legislature (67–68) Fourth legislature (68–73) Fifth legislature (73–78) Sixth legislature (78–81) Seventh legislature (81–86) Eighth legislature (86–88) Ninth legislature (88–93) Tenth legislature (93–97) Eleventh legislature (97–02) Twelfth legislature (02–07)

3.5 5.2 1.4 3.3 5.7 2.2 — — — — —

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the other hand, the second (1962) and sixth (1978) legislatures see a survival rate that is the highest. Usually, the loss (electoral defeat) of first-elected deputies is most significant between the first legislature (that of the first election) and the next, except for the deputies who were first elected in 1981. For these deputies, the most important decrease in the survival rate, almost 20 percentage points, took place between the legislature beginning in 1988 and that in 1993, whereas more than a quarter of deputies were still present between 1986 and 1988. A portion of them, in fact, returned to the National Assembly in 1997 (the survival rate increased by almost 10 points). Another atypical cohort is the set of deputies who were first-elected in 1993. They represented 44 per cent of their initial Assembly. They had a survival rate of 14 per cent in 1997, a loss of 30 percentage points between the two elections. This survival rate increased afterwards in 2002 to 18.5 per cent. Thus, it appears that the survival rate depends on the rate of renewal during the initial election – the more significant the renewal, the weaker the survival rate – and political alternations – if the election following the initial election is an alternation, it is more difficult to survive politically for first timers, but once this first reelection has happened, the losses within the cohort stabilize. The importance of the date of the first election is also illustrated by Figure 12. We observe that the first-elected have a political career length – defined here by the total number of terms accomplished – that varies r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419

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Figure 12: Political career according to the date of the first mandate.

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significantly. If we exclude the last elections for which we do not have information, we observe that the first-elected of the fourth legislature (1968) have the shortest career and inversely those of the third (1967) and the fifth (1973) and sixth (1978) have the longest career. Being elected for the first time in 1958, in 1981, in 1986 or in 1988 does not differentiate the careers.

Term Ends: The Rarity of Premature Exits If most of the deputies (Figure 13) kept their seat until the end of the legislature13, the primary reason for an early exit (resignation) is the nomination to a new position, notably within the government. It should be also noted that death in office is fairly rare as it only accounts for barely 2 per cent of those elected in the Fifth Republic. The premature exits vary from one legislature to the next (Figure 14) and depend primarily on the length of the legislature. The longer the legislature, the more the opportunities for nomination exist for deputies, notably because the number of governments increases during the legislature, which raises the number of premature exits. 376

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no early exit early exits due to death early exits due to election to other mandate

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Figure 13: Early exits of deputies of the Fifth Republic.

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Conclusion

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Acknowledgements

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This presentation of the population of deputies of the Fifth Republic gives a fairly complete image of the French deputies, as well as of their evolution. It demonstrates most notably that we witness the diminution of the effects of political alternation on the overarching structures of the National Assembly and that the main evolutions reside in a late but increasing feminization and the aging of the elected officials. This being said, it is evident that the population has not undergone substantial changes over the last 50 years. Although it is probably true, for example, that deputies are more professionalized today, this phenomenon is not reflected in profound changes in the demography, professional background or gender. On the contrary, our analysis seems to indicate that the modernization of parliamentary work has occurred with an unchanged population. In other words, the essential characteristics of the original population remain. The first political alternations had an important effect in terms of renewal, but the systematic nature of the alternations between 1981 and 2002 attenuated this effect. An alternation in 2012, were it to happen, should, in theory, bring about a stronger renewal of the Assembly, especially at a generational level.

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Notes

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The authors would like to thank David Bounie and Eric Dubois for their help. All remaining errors are ours.

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1 It should be noted that it is problematic to define and choose those characteristics that characterize such a concordance (gender, age, social class, profession, education and so on). 2 For a presentation of the evolution of the framework and political practices since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, see Appleton et al (2008), as well as a special issue of West European Politics directed by E. Grossman and N. Sauger (2009), notably Sauger (2009). 3 Website: www.assemblee-nationale.fr/; data collected in December 2007. 4 Appendix 1 proposes a presentation of the data covered by the study. 5 Given the proportional system of voting, the eighth legislature (1986) is excluded from this calculation. 6 The political categories are deducted from the parliamentary groups to which the deputies belong within the Assembly. This criterion partially limits the comparisons given the modifications of the groups through time. For example, during the first legislature, there are not enough communists to constitute an autonomous parliamentary group; they are thus affiliated with the category ‘other’. 7 Specifically, it is that they are not a candidate, either because they were not chosen by their party, or because they were not chosen by the voters. 378

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Who are the deputies of the Fifth Republic?

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8 The ‘parity law’ is a mechanism to encourage political parties to present female candidates based on a quota. The non-respect of this quota entails financial penalties on the public subsidies to political parties. For an in-depth analysis of its origins and consequences, see Le´pinard (2007). 9 The data come from the website of the Interparliamentary Union, www.ipu.org/wmn-f/ classif.htm, 7 September 2010. 10 The generations defined as follows: the prewar generation is defined as those born before 1919; the interwar generation comprises those born between 1920 and 1939; the baby boomer generation is born between 1940 and 1959; finally, the ‘post-baby-boom’ generation is born after 1959. 11 A recent study on policymaking in Argentina blames strong parliamentary renewal as one of the main causes of low-quality bills (Spiller and Tommasi, 2009). 12 The average proportion of first-elected deputies is 33.9 per cent for an Assembly without political alternation (the majority is the same political group) and is 37.2 per cent for an Assembly with a political alternation. 13 It goes without saying that the deputies of the thirteenth and last legislature are not included in these calculations.

References

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Appleton, A., Brouard, S. and Mazur, A. (eds.) (2008) The French Fifth Republic at Fifty. London: Palgrave. Best, H. and Gaxie, D. (2000) Detours to modernity: Long-term trends of parliamentary recruitment in Republican France 1848–1999. In: H. Best and M. Cotta (eds.) Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848–2000: Legislative Recruitment and Careers in Eleven European Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88–137. Chauvel, L. (2007) )L’aˆge de l’Assemble´e (1946–2007). Soixante ans de renouvellement du corps le´gislatif: bientoˆt, la troisie`me ge´ne´ration*. La Vie des ide´es, 22 October. ISSN: 2105–3030, http://www.laviedesidees.fr/L-age-de-l-Assemblee-1946-2007,81.html. Costa, O. and Kerrouche, E. (2007) Qui sont les de´pute´s franc¸ais? Enqueˆte sur des e´lites inconnues. Paris, France: Presses de Sc Po. Costa, O. and Kerrouche, E. (2009) Deputies under the Fifth Republic: Professionalisation within a weak institution. West European Politics 32(2): 327–344. Franc¸ois, A. (2009) Who are the candidates and substitute candidates in the French parliamentary elections? Statistical note on the 2007 elections. French Politics 7(2): 206–215. Grossman, E. and Sauger, N. (eds.) (2009) )France’s political institutions at 50*. West European Politics, Special Issue, 32(2): iii–437. Le´pinard, E. (2007) L’e´galite´ introuvable. La parite´, les fe´ministes et la Re´publique. Paris, France: Presses de Sciences Po. Loonis, V. (2006) )Les de´terminants de la re´e´lection des de´pute´s franc¸ais de 1871 a` 2002*. Histoire & Mesure 21(1): 221–254. Manin, B. (1996) Principes du gouvernement repre´sentatif. Paris, France: Flammarion. Mansbridge, J. (2003) Rethinking representation. American Political Science Review 97(4): 515–528. Sauger, N. (2009) Party discipline and coalition management in the French parliament. West European Politics 32(2): 310–326. Sineau, M. and Tiberj, V. (2007) Candidats et de´pute´s franc¸ais en 2002. Une approche sociale de la repre´sentation. Revue Franc¸aise de Science Politique 57(2): 163–186. Spiller, P. and Tommasi, M. (2009) The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy in Argentina. New York: Cambridge University Press. r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3419

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Appendix Presentation of data and methodology of data collection

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The data come from the website of the National Assembly that was available in December 2007. It represents in sum more than 6844 deputies elected over 13 legislatures of the Fifth Republic. Of these 13 legislatures, three had a left-wing majority, the 10 others had a right-wing or right and center majority. It should be noted that our database comprises elected officials at the time of the general election corresponding to the 13 dates of the beginning of the legislatures. Thus, the data regarding substitutes and those elected in by-elections during a term are excluded. The number of deputies studied does not match exactly the number of deputies present during the legislature. For example, during the ninth legislature our database contains 574 people and not 577. These differences are explained by a number of factors. For the first legislatures, this corresponds to the choice to exclude the deputies from the colonies in order to have a constant geographic base throughout time: metropolitan France, Corsica and the DOM-TOM. In addition, certain elected officials are missing, for example, due to elections that were nullified. As such, the district finds itself unrepresented at the beginning of the legislature (Table A1). The information available and constant in time for the deputies of the different legislatures concerns the socio-demographic characteristics of the MP (age, profession and so on), as well as their district and political group. It allows us to render the portrait of the MP of the Fifth Republic, and its evolution over 13 legislatures.

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Table A1: Data by legislature Legislature

Observations

Percentage

First legislature (58–62) Second legislature (62–67) Third legislature (67–68) Fourth legislature (68–73) Fifth legislature (73–78) Sixth legislature (78–81) Seventh legislature (81–86) Eighth legislature (86–88) Ninth legislature (88–93) Tenth legislature (93–97) Eleventh legislature (97–02) Twelfth legislature (02–07) Thirteenth legislature (07–12)

478 479 480 484 487 490 492 573 574 577 576 577 577

6.98 7.00 7.01 7.07 7.12 7.16 7.19 8.37 8.39 8.43 8.42 8.43 8.43

Total

6844

100.00

380

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Majority Right Right Right Right Right Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Right

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Legislative election following a presidential election No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes

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