A Strong Central Government
By

Emmanuel Chenny

PPA 601 Foundations of Public Administration
Instructor: Leon Daniel September 13, 2013

Unlike America, France is a republic with a stronger national government called the fifth republic. The federal system of government as defined by the Oxford dictionary and the constitution is the separation of powers among the three branches of government namely: the executive; the legislative and the judiciary. It is also structured to give the states greater powers equivalent to powers exercised by most independent countries around the world especially in the area of public education and the establishment of civil and criminal laws. This system is set up in such a way that the powers between the states and the central government are divided with the states sharing its powers with the local government. The powers given to the states and the national government are well defined by the constitution which guide such and help mitigate any conflict of interest. In the past, the states used to have almost an absolute power over education, public safety, consumer protection and environmental protection. Recently, such powers have been eroding due to the increasing role of the federal government in these areas which may be good or bad depending on who is being asked. The fact that the world is fast changing than it was decades or centuries ago due to the increased global threat in terrorism, implies that powers to dictate national policy be increased because of the constant gridlock between opposing parties in Washington. This will help to speed up the reaction time in case of any potential national security threat like 9/11. Some good examples had been the fight between the executive branch and the legislative over debt ceiling that led to the downgrading of America’s credit