Government of the French Republic from 1946 to 1958.
The postwar provisional president Charles de Gaulle resigned in 1946, expecting that public support would bring him back to power with a mandate to impose his constitutional ideas. Instead, the constituent assembly chose the Socialist Félix Gouin to replace him. The assembly submitted two draft constitutions to a popular vote in 1946, and the revision was narrowly approved. The structure of the Fourth Republic was remarkably like that of the Third Republic . The lower house of parliament, renamed the National Assembly, was the locus of power. Shaky coalition cabinets succeeded one another, and the lack of a clear-cut majority hampered coherent action. Political leaders included Georges Bidault , Pierre Mendès-France , René Pleven , and Robert Schuman .