Importance and influence of parliamentary committees in the conditions of minority governments’ functioning: theorizing and findings in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Abstract

The article analyzes the importance and influence of parliamentary committees in the conditions of minority governments at the theoretical level and empirically, in particular in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The author assumes that the legitimate mechanism of people’s representation in countries of this type is the parliamentary method of government formation and responsibility. Therefore, governmental cabinets, including minority ones, depend on party composition of parliaments in their formation, functioning and responsibility. It was suggested that the frequency of minority governments’ formation is additionally determined by the specialization of parliaments, in particular through the prism of parliamentary committees as an arena of government-opposition relations, where the opposition almost always prevails in the case of minority governments. However, it was analytically proved that the committees themselves, in particular their various attributes and “power”, do not or almost do not affect the frequency of minority governments’ formation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, the strengthening of committees can serve to strengthen parliamentary opposition, which contributes to the increase in frequency of minority governments’ formation.