Following Georges Vedel,[citation needed] some authors, such as Louis Favoreu,[8] maintain that the constitution "became effective in stages".

[e] The constitution established a rationalized parliamentary system [fr][f] through mechanisms of reciprocal control between the executive and legislative branches.

In all, it took a year and six days for a new Constitution to take effect in France and fully stabilize the organization of French institutions.

The provisional government, through the ordonnance of 17 August 1945, called a constitutional referendum on 21 October 1945, to be held in parallel with legislative elections.

"[h] If the French people had answered "No" to this question, the elected Constitutional Assembly would have defined "as it pleased"[15] the relationships between public powers.

This constitutional consecration, while precarious, thus would allow the public powers to submit to this law and to lead urgently needed political action.

Thus, it describes political responsibility of the Government which is only valid under a hypothetical motion of censure by a majority of the members of the Fourth Republic National Assembly (Article 1).

It provided: "The French people proclaim anew that every human being, with no distinction as to race, religion nor belief, possesses inalienable and sacred rights.

"It gave a Constitutional meaning to principles considered "particularly necessary in our time": Finally, it committed France to respecting international law.

The wording of the preamble still has force today over the public powers, and its application has been assured by the Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel) since its 1971 decision.

Rationalized parliamentarianism describes the whole of the judicial rules that meticulously frame relations between parliament and government in order to assure governmental stability in the absence of a consistent parliamentary majority.

Composed of 627 members elected to a five-year term through universal direct suffrage (men, women and military), the Assembly alone held certain powers.

Fifty of its 315 members were designated by the National Assembly (35 proportionately to the representation of the parliamentary groups that composed it, and 15 to represent the French overseas); 65 were designated by local assemblies overseas; 200 were elected by a body composed of deputies, 3,000 general councillors and 85,000 other electors.

The procedure by which he took office was described in the Constitution: after designation by the president of the Republic, he appeared alone before the National Assembly and gave a policy speech.

To do so required: For legislatures: Refusal to allow control by the second chamber of the legislative process, a personal confirmation of the president of the Council, and careful framing of any motion of censure as well as of a vote of confidence and dissolution.

As it happened, this was the beginning of double confirmation, taken as proof that the president of the Council did not dare to decide anything on his own and himself had put himself under the authority of the elected chamber.

[citation needed] "When used improperly," rationalized parliamentarianism "might bring about government paralysis", warn the authors of a study of its attempted introduction in Eastern Europe.