Crisis of May 16th, 1877

During the III {{E}} Republic, and whereas the Commune of Paris is still in the spirits, the republicans (led by Ferry and Gambetta) end up carrying it while proposing to finish some with the insurrections by the introduction of a democratic regime. Thiers joins with them, and their coalition makes vote in 1875 three constitutional laws. These texts found a republican and parliamentary mode well, but leave to the president strong capacities and make Sénat one second room moderating.

The audience of the republicans grows: they gain the elections of 1876. These elections giving however contradictory results:

Senate: the monarchists preserve only two votes of majority (151 against 149 republicans);
Room: broad victory of the republicans;
the presidency is monarchist.

The conflict between the room and the two other authorities of being able appears inevitable.

The crisis of May 16th, 1877 is opened by Mac-Mahon

The President constrained Mac-Mahon Jules Simon, the president of the Council of Ministers which is a moderated republican, to resign. It installs a new government of moral Ordre directed by Albert de Broglie.

But which was the pretext, the point of conflict between Simon and Mac-Mahon? That had milked with extended from the capacities of the president. For Mac-Mahon, he is a leading elected official, person in charge in front of the country: he cannot allow himself to be neutral. For this reason, it estimates that the government must follow its sights and that it is necessary to have its confidence. For the republicans, on the contrary, it is the room which is the dominating body, and it is thus of it that the government must emanate. It is the old order against the new order which clashes. But which of both has really the means of being made respect?

The continuation of the crisis of May 16th

The room refuses to grant its confidence to the government: Mac-Mahon, always also reconciling, dissolves it. The new elections bring 323 republicans to the room, against 208 conservatives. It is the disavowal: Mac-Mahon must be subjected like had required it Leon Gambetta at the time of dissolution:

When France makes hear its sovereign voice, it will be necessary to be subjected or be dislocated.

Mac-Mahon points out the moderated republican, Jules Dufaure, which had already been president of the council in 1876, and accepts the interpretation of the constitution that this one subjects to him:

the ministers are responsible in front of the House of Commons (the Senate obtains to control the ministers following the institutional crisis of 1896)
Surtout, the right of dissolution must remain exceptional. It is not employed any more besides of all the Third Republic. Even the Pétain Marshal, in 1940, did not dare to dissolve.

Conclusion

The crisis of May 16th gives the final interpretation of the constitutional laws of the Third Republic. The mode is definitively and absolutely parliamentary monist. In the mythological republican one, the coup attempt of force of Mac-Mahon is to be arranged with the 18 Brumaire or the December 2nd, 1851, in the shows of force honnies by a Republic which does not conceive to reconcile Executive power extremely, Démocratie and République.

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