The metamorphoses of parliamentarism in Europe

Abstract

The history of parliamentary government has always been accompanied by intense criticism about its political viability and democratic virtues. While many arguments questioning the workability of parliamentary government lack theoretical and empirical substance if looked at from a ‘realistic’ perspective, so do sweeping assessments, such as that by Armin von Bogdandy, which consider parliaments and parliamentarism as the real winners of the recent chapters of European history. Even where parliaments in established West European democracies have been reasonably successful in adapting to new challenges, their roles in the democratic process have effectively been reduced rather than expanded. There has also, and in particular, been no ‘parliamentarization’ of political institutions and processes at the level of the European Union, which would make good for the gradual weakening of parliamentary power at the national level.