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As widely reported in the news, French President Sarkozy’s reforms to the constitution were passed yesterday by one vote over the two-thirds majority required.

As a young political science undergraduate I was very interested in the structure and distribution of power in the French political system. France is a semi-presidential system, which isn’t exactly unusual but the particular constellation of political power there is unique. It is a system that I, in my more informed days, argued had a number of distinct advantages.

I felt that having a president whose primary responsible for high politics but could effectively dominate domestic politics during phases of united government (where the prime minister is from the same party) and was elected to long terms (seven years) allowed for continuation in foreign policy while providing voters the ability to ‘change direction’ mid-term.

With the changes in the current reforms it seems that Sarkozy want to take the French system closer to the American presidential system by reducing the term length (five years), increasing electoral and political pressures on the president, and also introducing a number of provisions that strengthens the parliament in a manner similar to the US system such as allowing for the French president to annually address the parliament (State of the Union-esque), giving parliament veto power of some key appointments, and giving the parliament further powers to hinder the ability of the president to push through legislation. As someone who admired the French political system from afar, I’d be interested in learning what French citizens thought of it.