security and the right resist oppression. The latter being almost identical to the "natural" rights illustrated in the United States Constitution.
             The president of France is Jacques Chirac and the Prime Minister is Jean-Pierre Raffarin. France is divided into twenty-two administrative regions and each region is divided into "departments" (counties)-there are ninety-six departments in France. The total land surface of France is 550,000 sq km and the highest point is the well-known Mont Blanc. There are approximately 59.9 million people living in France of which 95% are catholic. The French have a 99% literacy rate compared to a 97% literacy rate in the U.S. France's birth rate is 0.38 %, the highest among any other country in Europe and the life expectancy rate, at birth, is 78 years. France also has an extremely high immigration rate; more than one million Muslims immigrated to France during 1960's. France has a diverse ethnicity that includes Celtic, Latin, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, and Indian. It is perhaps for this reason that the government in France calls for so many political parties. France, like the United States also has a universal suffrage at the age of 18.
             While the French government did base its government on the policies of the U.S., it took almost two hundred years for France to develop and finalize the modern constitution it has today. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by public referendum on September 28, 1958. This amendment greatly strengthened the authority of the French executive in relationship to the Parliament. Under the constitution, the president is elected directly for a five-year term, which illustrates the first small difference between the two countries; America elects a president for only a four-year term. Like the United States, the French Constitution calls for a separation of powers-the division of powers among the Legislative, Executiv...