The President's Choice? Government and Cabinet Turnover under the Fifth Republic

This article examines the evolution of intra-executive relations under the Fifth Republic. In particular, it looks at the presidential decision to change or reshuffle governments. It shows that the president has used the institutional privileges to reshuffle and replace governments very much in his own best interests. Moreover, we try to understand whether the evolution of the party system has affected this practice. The article shows that current tendencies are not strong or unambiguous enough to find strong effects.