Scarcely six months after the final wave of anti-parliamentarianism that led to the overthrow of the Fourth Republic, French voters this week were again preparing to elect Deputies, but with a difference: under the Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle has sliced away most of the power of the National Assembly. But the French passion for officeholding brought out 2,822 candidates for only 465 seats in Metropolitan France. In one Parisian district, 16 political hopefuls are battling for the district's single seat. Of the 544 Deputies who had served in the discredited Assembly of the Fourth Republic, 90% are...
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