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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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IIRC one of the main reasons the French granted the West African states independence was that they had full representation in the legislature, and their population was increasing so rapidly that the ethnic French deputies would be outnumbered/outvoted by the African deputies very soon.

Tail wagging the dog so to speak.

Wikipedia says otherwise.

In reality, the colonial areas had representation [in the Assembly of the Union,] but all power remained in the [Metropolitan] French Parliament and thus was centralized.

The French-language article provides some more detail (via Google Translate):

The Assembly of the French Union is consulted on projects or proposals by the National Assembly [(the lower house of the Metropolitan Parliament)], the French government or the associated states. It can transmit proposals to the National Assembly or the government but it does not adopt laws.