Parliamentary Majority Research Articles

Procedural containment vs. substantive entrenchment: two early models of militant democracy

ABSTRACT German lawyer and political scientist Karl Loewenstein is generally regarded as the originator of the militant democracy paradigm. In a series of articles in the mid and late 1930s, he argued that constitutional democracies should pre-emptively defend themselves against movements and parties that were seeking to undermine them. More recently, another father of the paradigm has been identified in the controversial figure of Carl Schmitt. Before his despicable and opportunistic support for the Nazi regime at the end of 1933, he advocated a model of authoritarian democracy based on fundamental constitutional contents that should be made impervious to legislative change. This article examines the different models of disciplined and authoritarian democracy proposed by these authors. While both advocated measures that could inhibit the activity of parliamentary majorities composed mainly of parties opposed to the state constitutional structure, Schmitt, more than Loewenstein, made the point that the defence of democracy requires subscribing to substantive values and principles and entrenching them. The juxtaposition of these models makes it clear that militant democracy not only recommends the protection of certain procedures but also entails a normative standard comprising substantive contents. This helps to highlight the unstated normative burdens of democratic militancy.

Blood gambit: how autocratizing populists fuel ethnic conflict to reverse election setbacks – evidence from Turkey and Israel

ABSTRACT Through a comparative study of Turkey and Israel, this article highlights a specific strategy that autocratizing populist incumbents in ethnically divided societies utilize when they face election setbacks. A “blood gambit” entails fomenting violent conflict to keep the opposition divided along identitarian cleavages, while creating a rally-around-the-flag effect to help the incumbent win a renewed election. After failing to secure a parliamentary majority in June 2015, Erdoğan ended the Kurdish peace process and engineered repeat elections amidst heightened nationalist fervour and renewed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). These elections gave the Justice and Development Party (AKP) a majority and marked the beginning of its alliance with the ultranationalists. Following Israel’s March 2021 elections, Netanyahu increased state repression of Palestinians, which triggered interethnic violence and renewed confrontation with Hamas. The violence threw a wrench into coalition-building efforts between ideologically and ethnically diverse opposition parties. The comparison of Israel and Turkey as two countries with different majority religions, ethnic compositions and socioeconomic levels shows that “blood gambit” is not a parochial strategy. Our analysis also demonstrates that the outcomes of these strategies are shaped by differing institutional and political contexts, in particular, the extent of executive aggrandizement and the level of party fragmentation.

Aukštų pareigūnų skyrimas pusiau prezidentiniame modelyje: Lietuvos atvejis*

Both academics who study presidential powers and political practitioners acknowledge that Lithuanian president enjoys the power to appoint high-ranking officials. This article investigates the determinants of success (or failure) of presidential decrees by which nominations of high-ranking public officials are submitted to Seimas. Presented theory and results are also discussed in a wider context of literature on semi-presidentialism: what does this power say about the role of presidents and the functioning of such regimes? Analysis employs an original data set, which consists of 337 decrees by presidents of Lithuania from 1993 to 2023 that were submitted to Seimas for consent regarding the appointment of respective public officials. The statistical analysis is complemented by information from semi-structured interviews with several high-ranking politicians. The study reveals several key points. First, high success rate of decrees (about 92.7 percent) is explained by the incentives of the constitutional algorithm and the informal practice of coordinating nominations between the president and the ruling majority before submitting them to Seimas. Second, quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews reveal that the success of decrees increases with the judicial appointments that are advised by a body of experts (Council of Judges) and decreases with appointments to heads of institutions. Third, some cases can also be explained by personal characteristics of nominees: age (result of quantitative analysis) or their self-presentation to Seimas (semi-structured interviews). Fourth, cohabitation – when the president and the parliamentary majority are of different political camps – only partially explains the success of decrees. Some unsuccessful decrees occur because of a short-term drop in the “temperature” of intra-executive relationship. However, this drop usually bounces back to cooperation phase – thus, the power to appoint high-ranking officials contradicts popular paradigm of literature on semi-presidentialism, namely that sees the relationship between president and government as competitive. The president himself together with the system of checks and balances around this power almost ideally embody the moderating power: important condition is that the moderator himself is also constitutionally “moderated”.

Coalition government, frustrated majorities, and minority rule

Responsiveness to voters is key for democratic rule, yet often fails to occur. We argue that coalition government adds an additional hurdle to responsiveness. Multi-issue policy log-rolls between coalition parties in coalition agreement negotiations, none of which are individually supported by a parliamentary majority, can lead to policy change opposed by a majority, that is: Minority rule. Similarly, coalition agreements can block policy change supported by a parliamentary majority through a veto by one of the government parties, frustrating majority rule. Drawing on data from the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Analysis, we assess how often coalition agreements include policies supported by less than a parliamentary majority, and how often they exclude policies supported by parliamentary majorities. We show that two-thirds of policies included in coalition agreements are not supported by a floor majority, and that 30% of policies supported by a floor majority fail to be included in a coalition agreement.

‘This is a sovereign assembly’: popular sovereignty, parliament and the people in the Irish Free State

ABSTRACT The stability of Irish democracy since 1922 is often a cause for contentment with lines of succession drawn from ‘Grattan’s parliament’, O’Connell’s popular movement, and the achievements of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) at Westminster through to Dáil Éireann. The IPP certainly disrupted the Commons, yet Irish politics was also shaped by the ‘mother of parliaments’ – MPs mastered parliamentary procedure and home rule legislation drew on British and colonial parliamentary models. By 1918, the party’s machine and parliamentary behaviour were rejected as much as British rule – but as Michael Laffan suggested, Sinn Féin triumphed by beating the home rulers at their own game. However, the 1922 constitution gave generous expression to the sovereignty of the people, and for judicial review. But, within short succession, facility for popular initiative was overridden. Ironically, the Irish Free State would never be amended by popular will or judicial review but by parliamentary majority in 25 amendments as the people only voted to adopt it in 1922 and replace it in 1937. In practice then, it was closer to a vision of Dicey's supremacy of parliament dogma that prevailed, so much so, that Seán Lemass acrimoniously proclaimed in 1934: ‘this is a sovereign assembly’.

The Council of Europe and the Catalan Secessionist Process: The Authoritarian Drift of the Radical Democratic Principle

This study shines a light on the problem of Catalan secessionist leaders’ abuse of the term “democracy”, an issue rarely discussed in the academic debate. The Catalan secessionist case has mainly been studied as a problem concerning the principle of territorial integrity and how it relates to the existence (or otherwise) of a right of self-determination for a substate entity. However, it is also a problem of democracy. For the entire secessionist process was based on a democratic principle outside and against the Spanish Constitution: one that defends the supremacy and inviolability of the (regional, in this case) parliamentary majority over the rule of law and respect for minority rights. It thus pitted a radical or identity-based democracy against the democracy protected and promoted by the Council of Europe (in which the rule of law, human rights and democracy are inseparable principles forming a single whole). The Venice Commission, the European Court of Human Rights and a divided Parliamentary Assembly have all witnessed this defence of authoritarianism through the radical democratic principle advocated by the leaders of the Catalan process. In response, the first two have defended constitutional democracy, the common heritage on which European public order is based. In 2021, the PACE took a short-lived position (it has adopted no further resolutions in this sense), buoyed by a weak majority, in favour of the Catalan radical democratic principle. Two years later, however, it, too, would defend constitutional democracy as the “genuine democracy” to which the 1949 Treaty of London refers, albeit again by a slim majority. The study concludes that there is no place for the radical democratic principle in Council of Europe law.

Law of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland: concerning reform and problems of independence

This article aims to analyze the development of the law of the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland in terms of its constitutional and legislative status, as well as the problems associated with the constitutional crisis. Special attention is paid to legislative measures aimed at weakening the body of constitutional jurisdiction in Poland, in particular, a significant reduction in guarantees of the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal.
 It was concluded that the law of December 22, 2015, the method of its adoption and entry into force demonstrates an attempt to remove it from the mechanisms of constitutional control (lack of time “distance” between official promulgation and entry into force). On the other hand, its content provides a set of means that encroach on the independence of the Tribunal, including: 1) a quorum of 13 out of 15 judges (there were 12 active judges); 2) the general condition for approval of decisions is at least two-thirds of votes; 3) minimum terms for the initiation of case consideration, which make the urgency of case consideration impossible; 4) giving the president and the minister of justice the right to initiate disciplinary proceedings against a judge; 5) participation of the Seimas in the termination of a judge’s The above means, in combination with the means provided by the law of November 19, 2015 (which terminated the powers of the chairman and deputy chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal), indicate the use of the legal instrument outside the rule of law.
 Regarding the directions of limiting the guarantees of independence of the Constitutional Tribunal, increasing its politicization through the use of the instrument of the law. The nature of such means revealed the intention of the legislator to take them beyond the limits of constitutional control and to sharply limit and complicate the work of the Constitutional Tribunal. This approach shows a potential threat from the parliamentary majority to use a special law on the constitutional court to narrow the effectiveness of the institution of constitutional control.

The Meloni government and the challenge of ecological transition

ABSTRACT During 2023, the Meloni government had to face the difficult management of the emergencies caused by the calamitous events that hit Emilia Romagna and Tuscany, which brought the long-lasting issue of hydrogeological instability back onto the public agenda. More generally, in the environmental and land protection fields, the government inherited the implementation of the measures associated with the strategic axis of the Ecological Transition, contained in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). However, the position of the government and that of the parliamentary majority not always fitted with the contents of the existing programming, nor with the policies promoted by the European institutions. By adopting a qualitative approach and combining original and secondary sources, in this work we will analyse the actions undertaken by the Meloni government in the environmental field in light of the “responsiveness-responsibility dilemma”. Particular attention will be paid to the points in continuity and to the breaks with the legacies of the past. The analysis shows how the government has progressively deviated from consolidated policy directions and planning, favouring the responsiveness pole to the detriment of responsibility.

Doctrine of Basic Structure and the Evolution of Indian Constitution

The Indian Constitution was written by its founders in order to provide a certain amount of rigidity and stability over time. Furthermore, they granted Parliament the authority to alter the Constitution in accordance with Article 368 in order to resolve any future implementation issues. A constitution can be flexible, but it must also retain its normative nature as the ultimate law that restrains parliamentary majorities that are momentary. While the Supreme Court's seminal ruling in Keshavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973) established that Parliament cannot alter the 'Basic Structure or Framework' of the Constitution, Article 368 does not expressly limit Parliament's amending power. This theory has been strongly debated from its origin and is still a major topic of discussion in current institutional discussions about the identity and evolution of the Constitution. This paper investigates the development and extent of the doctrine of basic structure, along with its influence on the Constitution of India and its reflection in the legal systems of other nations.

International Organizations Influence on the Relationship between the Parliamentary Majority and the Opposition in a Democracy

International Organizations Influence on the Relationship between the Parliamentary Majority and the Opposition in a Democracy

Zakaz terminacji ciąży z przyczyn embriopatologicznych jako przyczyna ekstremizacji istniejącego ładu aksjonormatywnego

The main aim of the article is the attempt to decide whether the regulations on perinatal palliative care created by the parliamentary majority can justify the absolute ban on embryopathological abortion introduced by the Constitutional Tribunal? Of course, giving a clear answer to such questions is extremely difficult and will always be very subjective. This is why the author does not try to impose his own position on the admissibility/ inadmissibility of abortion for embryopathological reasons but tries to demonstrate that the adopted normative regulations regarding perinatal palliative care, to the extent that they constitute the only permissible option for parents, who receive the most terrible health diagnosis one’s unborn child should be seen in terms of legitimizing extremism.

Court-Packing Accomplished – The Changing Jurisprudence of a Subordinate Constitutional Court

The worldwide decline in democracy poses a major challenge to the independence of constitutional courts, which are the guardians of constitutionalism and the rule of law. The international literature on constitutional adjudication is therefore understandably concerned with how judicial independence is undermined in different types of authoritarian regimes. However, less attention has been paid to how the practice of these courts evolves when they are directly or indirectly controlled by the government. This article examines how the practices of the Hungarian Constitutional Court changed following the successful court-packing by its government, which exercised its constitution-making parliamentary majority to subvert the Court, which was once one of the most activist constitutional courts in Europe. In this case, political influence was fullyexercised; this study shows how the Constitutional Court, in order to maintain a semblance of independence, uses several different methods to uphold the government’s will. The Hungarian example may be instructive as it illustrates where the dismantling of judicial independence can lead.

ԱԶԳԱՅԻՆ ԺՈՂՈՎԻ ՔՆՆԻՉ ՀԱՆՁՆԱԺՈՂՈՎՆԵՐԻ ՍՏԵՂԾՄԱՆ ԵՎ ԳՈՐԾՈՒՆԵՈՒԹՅԱՆ ԿԱԶՄԱԿԵՐՊՄԱՆ ԽՆԴԻՐՆԵՐԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ/

The Issues related to the formation of the inquiry committees in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. The work is aimed at studying the experience of local and foreign countries regarding the creation of the inquiry committees and their legal status. The creation of an inquiry commission with the requirement of a quarter of the total number of deputies is theoretically and practically problematic and may limit the use of this control tool by the parliamentary minority. Therefore, it was suggested to revise these regulations. The application of the principle of popular legitimation in the basis of the formation of inquiry committees is considered inappropriate, because in parliamentary system of government, the committee mainly exercises control over the government formed by the majority. In the case of proportional formation of parliamentary forces, the control is of a formal nature and the minority both in the parliament and in the commission is not able to exercise effective conrol. The inquiry committee should have independence from the parliamentary majority, so it was suggested to review the proportional formation of the committee.

The state as a special subject of constitutional and legal responsibility

The article focuses attention on the role of the state in the implementation of Ukraine's foreign policy course - the acquisition of full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance, as well as on the role of Ukraine in international cooperation aimed at preserving, maintaining and restoring peace, developing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms to all. Attention is focused on the types of subjects of constitutional and legal relations, among which a separate group is the state, state authorities and local self­government bodies, their structural formations, in particular the parliamentary majority and the parliamentary opposition, parliamentary factions, committees, etc.; deputies, officials and officials. Attention is drawn to the common features of constitutional and legal responsibility and legal responsibility (responsibility is a consequence of an offense; it is related to the implementation of sanctions established by law). Emphasis is placed on the established doctrinal approach to the concept of constitutional and legal responsibility.
 Part 2 of Art. 3 of the Constitution of Ukraine according to which the state is responsible to the person for its activities, as well as the provision «affirmation and provision of human rights and freedoms is the main duty of the state» and Art. 9, part 2 of Art. 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees everyone the right to appeal in court decisions, actions or inaction of state authorities, local self-government bodies, officials and officials, part 5 of Art. 55, which guarantees everyone the right, in particular, to apply to the European Court of Human Rights with an individual application against the state, art. 56 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees everyone the right to compensation at the expense of the state or local self-government bodies for material and moral damage caused by illegal decisions, actions or inaction of state authorities, local self-government bodies, their officials and employees in the exercise of their powers, the Convention on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Law of Ukraine «On the Implementation of Decisions and Application of Practice of the European Court of Human Rights», doctrinal approaches. Attention is focused on measures of a general nature.
 The article argues that the state is a special subject of constitutional and legal responsibility. It is emphasized that the state bears constitutional and legal responsibility in the event of non­fulfillment of its obligations, if as a result of this harm is caused to anyone.

The Electoral System in Light of the Jordanian Election Law no. (4) of 2022 Analytical & Critical Study

The significance of this study stems from the importance of electoral systems and their role in producing elected councils based on partisan pluralism, for the possibility of transforming into parliamentary governments stemming from the party or party alliance that obtains the parliamentary majority. The study comes to answer the main problem, which is: To what extent was the legislator able in the new election law 4/2022 to establish a tight legal organization for the electoral system to form the Jordanian Parliament, whether in terms of forming local lists or the general list and the effectiveness of distributing seats to them. The study concluded that the new election law did not achieve the main objective which is strengthening partisan pluralism and activating its role in the electoral process, as it was characterized by legal uncertainty and shortcomings in some aspects of regulation. Therefore, the study recommended the need to reconsider the legal regulation related to the distribution of seats among the local electoral constituencies on the one hand, and the general electoral constituency in terms of increasing the seats for the general electoral district, on the other hand.

Beyond Institutional Adaptation: Legislative Europeanisation and Parliamentary Attention to the EU in the Hungarian Parliament

Abstract While studies of the formal adaptation of parliaments to the European Union (EU) have dominated legislative scholarship in the last two decades, there is a growing interest in the substantive impact of the EU on legislative production and parliamentary behaviour. We contribute to this research agenda by exploring the effects of Europeanisation on the national parliament of one democratically backsliding EU member state, Hungary. Comparing periods marked by Europhile and Eurosceptic parliamentary majorities between 2004 and 2018 shows that governmental attitudes towards the EU are not reflected in parliamentary law-making and that parliamentary attention is mainly influenced by the level of Europeanisation of the policy field. This shows that backsliding governments do not generally oppose greater integration and underscores the necessity to distinguish between rhetorical Euroscepticism and Eurosceptic legislative action.

Криза парламентської демократії та спроби її подолання в Другій Речі Посполитій у 1924-1926 рр.

The purpose of the article is to study the crisis period in the process of establish- ing parliamentary democracy in the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1924-1926. Research methodology. General scientifi c complex research methods (empirical, comparative, theoretical, analysis method) are applied. In the process of research, the authors were guided by the principles of historicism, objectivism and systematicity, thanks to which the source and historiographical material processed and involved in this scientifi c investigation is reliable and representative. The scientifi c novelty of the article is determined by the fact that the authors have made an attempt to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the positions of the leading Polish political parties towards the current model of parliamentary democracy, as well as their proposals for its reform. Conclusions. Th e article highlights the political debate in the Polish po- litical space regarding overcoming the crisis of parliamentary democracy through the reform of the electoral legislation and the Constitution of 1921. The party debate on issues of state and the legal system of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1924–1926. The main propos- als for reforming Polish statehood are characterized. It was found that most of the Polish political parties considered the lack of conditions for the creation of a stable parliamentary majority to be the main problem of the crisis in the country’s public life, which would facilitate the imple- mentation of a consistent and long-term government policy. At the same time, the principle of proportional representation, the practice of which led to the emergence of an unreasonably large number of parliamentary factions, was considered the most important drawback of electoral law. One of the proposed options for overcoming the crisis was a transition to a majoritarian electoral system, which would favor large parties and the creation of a strong parliamentary majority and a government based on it.

State Sovereignty in the Trenches: Legal Aspects of Vigilantism in Slovenia

This article addresses the legal aspects of vigilantism in Slovenia. It aims to present to an international audience how Slovenia and its legal system reacted to the sudden appearance of anti-migrant vigilante groups, which caused a considerable shock in a country unaccustomed to such phenomena. To this end, we first define and typologize vigilantism in general terms and identify its recent manifestations in Slovenia. Next, the article outlines the divergent state responses to vigilantism from a theoretical perspective, focusing on strategies premised on the legal prohibition—e.g., legal exclusion—and prosecution of—the activities of—vigilante groups on the one hand, and the tolerance toward them and authorities’ cooperation with them, while performing official tasks, on the other. The author demonstrates how Slovenia resorted to the former. The author analyses the legislative amendments, which—according to the proponents and parliamentary majority that approved the amendments—were necessary to ensure an effective response of the state and its legal system to the threat posed to national security and sovereignty by the Styrian Guard and other anti-migrant vigilante groups. Finally, the author provides a brief analysis of the criminal conviction of the Styrian Guard leader, the key figure of vigilantism in Slovenia.

Slovakia: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractThe war in Ukraine and its fallout dominated politics in Slovakia throughout 2022. The coalition split up after the summer, leaving the Cabinet in a fragile position in Parliament. This led to chaotic parliamentary sessions in October and November that ended on 15 December, when the Heger II Cabinet lost a no‐confidence vote initiated by a former coalition party Freedom and Solidarity, SaS. As no new parliamentary majority formed, the Heger II Cabinet continued in office under the supervision of President Z. Čaputová, with parliamentary political parties unable to compromise on early elections.

Parliamentary Control and Investigative Commissions: Comparative View

The Constitution of the Republic of Albania in its basic principles defines that sovereignty belongs to the people, to all citizens. The people exercise their sovereignty in the ways and within the limits provided by the Constitution itself. One of the most important ways of expressing popular sovereignty is the election of members of the Assembly. So, citizens participate in the governance of Res Publica through their representatives. Parliament structurally consists of one chamber and is a central institution in our constitutional system. In addition to the representative function, it performs the legislative function and the control function. Parliamentary control over the Government is concretized in several institutions of parliamentary law and aims to highlight its political responsibility towards the Assembly. For the sake of truth, it should be emphasized that it makes sense to talk about parliamentary control only for the period of political pluralism because before this period the Parliament executed the party-State directives. The government, in parliamentary republics, answers to the Parliament for its activity because it is inextricably linked to the vote of confidence it receives from it. One of the most important tools to oversee the Government's activity is the establishment of Investigative Commissions. These Commissions aim to guarantee the transparency and responsibility of the activity of the Government supported by the parliamentary majority.
 
 Received: 05 May 2022 / Accepted: 16 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023