French Electoral Series in Perspective

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Stable Governance in France and USA

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This paper is been written on the topic whether formal institutions such as, constitutions,
formal guidelines and electoral systems or structural factors such as, social, economic and
cultural factors, are more important to ensure stable governance. The United States of America
(USA) and France are the two chosen countries, since both the countries are developed
democracies. The paper highlights the formal institutions and social factors of each country with
a comparative study. The formal institutions consists of electoral system, formal rules by the
government, mandatory guidelines and the constitution system. Whereas, the structural or the
social factors includes the values, beliefs, economic factors, cultural factors, social factors, and
health factors.
Formal institutions constitutes of the legal text written or the constitution, which contains
formal guidelines. Formal institutions involves official and formal enforcement system, as a
consequences of the violation of rules the individual is punishable under the law. Formal
institutions such as, business regulations, form of government, mandatory guidelines by
government, property rights and legal system that impacts the development and stability of a
country. For example, it is formally written in the books of law that, murder is a crime and any
person who does, such an act, is punishable under the law. This means that it is formally
mentioned in the constitution and laws, therefore, if any citizen of the country violates this law,
cannot be saved in any situation.
However, life and human behavior cannot be constrained only by the formal institutions.
Therefore, some cultural and social factors such as traditions, morals, code of conduct and values
also influence the behavior of a human and democratic stability of a country. In Informal
institutions rules are not written formally or it may be unwritten code of conduct. For example, in
a football match, a player intentionally injures the key player, from the opposing team, having an

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intention to win the game by cheating and hurting another person to throw him out of the game.
A player may win the game by hurting his opposing player, but winning the game using
unethical tactics is immoral and unfair (Desipio, 2019).
A democratic society practices individual freedom, equality and liberty. USA is a
developed country, having strong democracies. USA is among a country which performs free
and fair elections, freedom of speech and executive power (Hannah-Jones, 2019). Formal
institution of USA contains legal system which states guideline which are mandatory to be
followed by the public, violation of which may be punishable under the law. Some of the laws
practiced in USA such as, it is mandatory for driving vehicle on the right side of the street,
violation of which is penalized, Dollars are legally used of money and a person manufacturing
fake and illegal dollar currency will be punishable under the law. The laws of formal institution
is mentioned in the rule books, and the consequences of violation are also mentioned. Any
individual who violates any law in formal institution, are generally aware about the laws in
formal institution and their consequences, in most of the cases, but intentionally tries to violate
the rule, assuming that they may not be caught (Hannah-Jones, 2019). For example, a citizen in
America knows about the law of driving the car on the right side of street. But still knowingly
the person drives on the wrong side of road, to rush at workplace. But the person knows the
consequences of breaking such a rule, he is aware that he will be punished and penalized if
cached by authorized police (Hannah-Jones, 2019).
Whereas, France is also considered as a developed democracy. France also practices
equal political and civil rights for all the citizens (Kesselman, 2009). France provides its citizens
right to work, right to vote, right to speech and equal rights for men and women. Same as USA,
France also enforces penalty and punishment for violation of the laws given by formal institution

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(Cole, 2018). Few formal guidelines in France such as, Euro is legally used by citizens of France,
compulsory to drive on the right side of the street, theft and murder are punishable under the law
(Kesselman, 2009). For example, an individual tries to unethically hack software of another
company or the competitor company, knowing the fact that it is illegal and the consequences of
violating it, is formally mentioned in the rules of the law. Unethical hacking with an intention to
damage the competitor is punishable under the law, and if an individual is detected violating
such an act will be punished. Whereas, these formal institutions in USA and France affects
exchange, stability, growth, production and the consumption of the country.
Structural factors such as income and wealth, culture, education, employment, household
composition, social mobility, income inequality and economic factors also influence the stability
of governance. If a country have good cultural values, as well as, high employment rate and
wealth, it will result into satisfaction of the citizens of the country. And satisfied citizens can
result into higher production of quality work. Whereas, if the country have a high ratio of
unemployed youth, it will lack cultural value and health factor. If the country lacks in the
structural factors, the country cannot survive and compete the present market scenario for a long
term. Unhealthy and unemployment conditions will affect the production and stability of the
country.
USA is among the wealthiest countries but in terms of health it is lacking much behind.
The life age of people in USA is much lower. Some of the common health issues among
Americans are obesity, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease and drug related mortality.
Some of the social factors that has largely affected the life and health of people in USA are lower
income and wealth, lack of education, unemployment, low-skilled and low-status employment,

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stress, income inequality, social status and acceptance in the society, racial and ethnic factors and
migration have been a reason for unhealthy life in USA (Desipio, 2019).
Structural, economic, social and cultural factors have played an important role in maintaining
stable governance in France. Cultural activities such as museum and galleries, attracts people from
different parts of the world, which contributes to financial stability for the country. France into sports and
recreation developed into new range of activities such as mountain biking, rock climbing, cross-country
skiing and contribution in Olympic (Cole, 2018). Games have bought the country among the global
presence. Therefore, some economic factors such as agriculture, fishing, forestry, minerals, energy and
power, industries, manufacturing, grains, fruits and wine making also contributed in maintaining the
stability in the system of the country (Cole, 2018).
Therefore, it can be said from the above discussion that, structural factors and formal
institutions both are necessary for maintenance of stability in governance of a country. A
balanced formal institutions and informal institutions are important for growth and stability of a
country. If a country is having a stable formal institution, but lacking behind in social, economic,
cultural and health care factors, the country will not have a stability in governance. For example,
USA is having a stable and wealthy formal institution but, the people of the country are
unhealthy. So, if the citizens are unhealthy, their output of work and production will also be
affected. Which in turn affect the overall stability of the country. On the other hand, if the
country is strong in formal structures, social structures, health sector and economic sector. The
quality of work and production will improve, as compared to the production and quality of work,
by a country lacking in the structural factors. As a result the country having good formal and
structural factors will have a better stability in governance, as compared to the country lacking in
any one of the factor.

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Formal institutions contains formally written guidelines which are mandatory for the
people of the country to be followed. And any individual who does not follow or conducts the
breach of the guidelines is punishable under the law. Whereas, informal or structural factors are
not formally written. USA is a well-built democratic country, having strong constitution and
electoral systems. USA is financially strong, with an efficient stability in the formal institutions.
Whereas it lacks in few social factors such as health. To achieve a proper stable governance the
country must overcome the unstable condition of social factors. France also have specified
formal guidelines, which are mandatory, to be followed. Whereas, France have good social,
culture and economic factors such as museums, galleries, mineral and resources, tourism
attraction, sport activities and industries. Therefore, both strong formal institution and
constitution, as well as, strong social and structural factors are necessary for maintaining good
stable governance. To attain stability in governance, a country must be formally and informally
balanced.

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Work Cited
FRANCE
Cole, Alistair. 2018. “Crowning Jupiter: The 2017 French Electoral Series in Perspective.”
Parliamentary Affairs 71: 501-520.
Kesselman, Mark. 2009. “France: The Making of the Modern French State.” In: Mark
Kesselman, Joel Krieger, Christopher S. Allen, Joan DeBardeleben, Stephen Hellman, David
Ost, and George Ross, eds. European Politics in Transition , (sixth edition). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 104-118.
AMERICA
Hannah-Jones, Nikole “America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One.” 14
August 2019.
DeSipio, Louis. 2019. “The United States.” In: Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger, and William A.
Joseph, eds. Introduction to Comparative Politics, (eighth edition). Boston, MA: Cengage.