Part II - The regime
4 - What the function is not
Before describing the institutional attributes in detail in Part III, it is necessary to dispel three mistaken readings that would kill any understanding of the model.
It is not a president of the Republic in medieval costume. The president of the Fifth Republic has progressively meddled in day-to-day management to the point of becoming co-responsible for everything and master of nothing. The function of incarnation is the exact opposite: its strength lies in its restraint. A guardian of sovereignty who meddles in current arbitrations ceases to be above factions and becomes one of them. Restraint is not an institutional weakness but the condition of existence of the function.
It is not a benevolent dictator. The function is framed, revocable, and permanently subject to popular legitimacy. It holds strong powers in times of crisis precisely because they are strictly delimited in their scope and duration. An exceptional power that cannot be revoked is a tyranny. An exceptional power framed by real checks and balances and popular revocability is a sovereign insurance.
It is not a decorative symbol. Contemporary constitutional monarchies have emptied the royal function of all substance to the point of rendering it useless. This model goes in the exact opposite direction: the function of incarnation exists only because it is operational, that is to say capable of acting in a real way on the day when ordinary institutions no longer suffice. A figure without real power is not a guardian of sovereignty, it is a decoration.