The Constitution of the Fourth French Republic (1946) in the Historical Perspective

Abstract

The French Revolution marked the period of the beginning of the expansion of republican ideas in France, and its achievements include in particular the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights (1789). The republican constitutional tradition then formed in the period of the Third Republic (1870–1940) and strengthened in the Fourth Republic (1946–1958). The Constitution of the Fourth Republic of 1946, which was the result of a political compromise, deserves attention because it finalises the process of forming the constitutional republican tradition. The Constitution of the Fourth Republic was adopted after a relatively long period of preparation and interim rule. The assumptions of the creators of this constitution were to constitute a departure from the political assumptions of the discredited Third Republic and the practice of applying the material constitution based on the constitutional laws in force at that time. However, it turned out that the departure from the constitutional tradition shaped over decades is not so obvious in practice because of internal premises such as the political system, social consciousness and international premises in the postwar period. These factors ultimately determined the short period of validity of the 1946 Constitution, and the Fourth Republic is treated as another episode in the history of the French constitutionalism. The text is based on scientific literature (Polish and French). In implementing the research assumptions, the dogmatic-legal method and the historical-legal method were used.