Wait... The French vs The French?

Friday, December 23, 2005

I read this article from Slashdot yesterday, and it's still confusing me:

The French Parliament voted last night to allow free sharing of music and movies on the Internet, setting up a conflict with both the French government and with media companies.

The French Parliament in conflict with the French government? Excuse my naivete... but isn't the Parliament part of the government?

The government can overturn the amendment, either by re-opening debate or if the Senate votes it down when the bill moves to the upper house. French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres has asked that parliament re-open debate on the amendment today, Agence France Presse reported.

I should really try to study up on how French law and government works. Either their parliament has very little real power, or the person writing this article is using terms like "government" when it should say "executive", "prime minister", or "president". Anyone know how it works over there? This just sounded weird.

Posted at 2:15 PM by Nick | | |

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Comments:

I think it's something like the separation of powers over here: legislative vs. executive.

Only, the Europeans don't tend to give the executive branch a lot of authority (checks and balances) over the legislative branch.

Posted at December 23, 2005 2:54 PM by

Aaron

I took french for six years....

I have no f*cking clue.

Don't make me do homework over Christmas break dude.

Posted at December 24, 2005 12:43 AM by

Kuflax

I'll have to side with Aaron on this. I'm wondering who translated the article for Bloomberg, or if it's written in English by a French writer. Would be interesting to see the "version originale."

I do have to admit to being a bit perplexed with the whole parliamentary system of government. I don't believe it to be as straightforward as here, but then again, a lot of my friends in places with the parliamentary system don't really get how we're organized.

Posted at December 28, 2005 11:24 AM by