Institutions
Article 91 of the constitution stipulated that the institutions of the Community were to be established by 4 April 1959.
These were as follows:
The President of the Community was the President of the French Republic. The member states also took part in his election and he was represented in each state by a High Commissioner. In 1958 President de Gaulle was elected by an absolute majority in all the states.
The Executive Council of the Community met several times a year, in one or other of the capitals, on the summons of the President, who assumed the chair. It was composed of the chiefs of the governments of the different states and the ministers responsible for common affairs.
The Senate of the Community was composed of members of the local assemblies designated by them in numbers proportional to the population of the state. This body was functionally powerless, and after holding two sessions it was abolished in March 1961.
A Community Court of Arbitration, composed of seven judges nominated by the President, gave decisions in disputes between member states.
Because France did not want to become 'a colony of its colonies', African countries did not make up a majority voting bloc and were functionally required to join with French parties in order to gain voting power.
Read more about this topic: French Community
Famous quotes containing the word institutions:
“This, our respectable daily life, on which the man of common sense, the Englishman of the world, stands so squarely, and on which our institutions are founded, is in fact the veriest illusion, and will vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision; but that faint glimmer of reality which sometimes illuminates the darkness of daylight for all men, reveals something more solid and enduring than adamant, which is in fact the cornerstone of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In abnormal times like our own, when institutions are changing rapidly in several directions at once and the traditional framework of society has broken down, it becomes more and more difficult to measure any type of behavior against any other.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free Government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, that their political Institutions ... are as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of Man as they are conformable to his individual and social rights.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)