Parliamentary Mandate Research Articles

Wybory jako forma legitymizacji władzy w Polsce w dwudziestoleciu przemian ustrojowych

During the political transformation in Poland, electoral law was frequently changed. The general principles, already adopted in 1991, were maintained in parliamentary elections (to the Sejm). The changes only affected the detailed solutions concerning how the votes were calculated as mandates, and the sizes of constituencies. The so-called elective thresholds, which were introduced in 1993, have been maintained. In practice, the result of the current system of parliamentary elections is that the parties that attract approximately 25% of the votes cast by all those authorized to vote, win over half the parliamentary mandates, thereby exercising power. Therefore, the claim that a democratic electoral system is based on the principle of majority rule seems doubtful here, as what we actually get entails the rule of the largest social group, or at least the one that has the most effective organization. Contrary to popular belief, the majority elections to the Senate do not change the above rule. A voter supporting a given candidate in these elections is mainly directed by the political group which supports this candidate. The electoral system to the Senate was finally formed in 1991 and only slightly amended in 2001. Asingle-mandate constituency in the elections to the upper chamber of the parliament was only introduced by Electoral Law in 2011.

Tibor Eckhardt: His American Years 1941-1972. EEM, 709 by Katalin Kádár Lynn (review)

572 SEER, 88, 3, JULY 20IO 'Czechoslovak' Germans about themerits of the Protectorate, many felt like 'second-class Germans' (p. 49), not least because of the disadvantages that it brought them: it introduced draft,work duty and ruined parts of the economy. Conversely, some Czechs favoured the Protectorate, since it solved the problem of unemployment, and although most Czechs lost control of their businesses they continued to play leading roles. A related observation is that what was perceived as Germanification was in fact nazjfication:Bryant attempts to free the events from theProtectorate from the straitjacket ofCzech history writing that reduces all events to components of the Czech-German struggle. Bryant does not entirely succeed in showing themutual influence between the two chaotic, violent and ad hoc attempts at nation building. The Czech inclination to obey Nazi rule remains somewhat one-dimensional. Pragmatic attitudes are correcdy presented, but the roots can arguably be found much deeper, perhaps even in nineteenth-century Czech nation-building or in the ambivalences of the First Czechoslovak Republic. Moreover, the domestic move towards rightwing positions during the so-called Second Republic and particularly the propaganda activities in the Protectorate would have provided additional insight. In this respect journalists-politicians such as Emanuel Moravec and Emanuel Vaj tauer are remarkably absent. The Czechs and resistance movements are discussed as rathermonolithical groups, with the exception of theLondon exile community. Itwould have been interesting to determine if there were crucial differences between conservative and Communist resistance with regard to the national issue. Even with these com ments inmind, Prague inBlack isa highly appreciated contribution to thefield. It successfully undermines fixed conceptions about the era, reinterprets the events in national terms and provides enlightening revelations from archival sources. Department of European Studies Universityof Amsterdam Carlos W. C. Reijnen Lynn, Katalin K?d?r. Tibor Eckhardt:His Amer?can Tears 1941-1972. EEM, 709. East European Monographs, Boulder, CO, 2007. ii + 253 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $40.00. Tibor Eckhardt was one of the second tier of politicians in inter-war Hungarian politics. A member of the gentry class that served as the true backbone of theHungarian political system,he was born in 1888, received a first-class education and entered the bureaucracy in 1908 where he rapidly earned promotion into the senior ranks of the Ministry ofHomeland Defence, thereby avoiding active service in World War One. In the chaos thatmarked the firstpost-war months, Eckhardt joined the various counter-revolutionary groups opposed to the revolutionary governments of Mih?ly K?rolyi and B?la Kun, ultimately ending up as press secretary in theNational Army led by Mikl?s Horthy that 'liberated' Budapest from theCommunists in the autumn of 1919. REVIEWS 573 From 1920 he served as head of the Prime Minister's Press Office in the governments of P?l Teleki (1920-21) and Istv?n Bethlen (1921-22) but in 1922 he gave up his administrative responsibilities in order to run for parliament and as a new MP immediately marked himself out as one of a small group of right-radicalMPs noted for their antisemitism, pro-Italian/German orienta tion, and their demands for social reform. In 1923, this group, led by Gyula G?mb?s, broke with the government and established the Race-Defending Party which was prompdy relegated to the fringes of parliamentary politics and was electorally obliterated in the 1926 elections. Eckhardt lost his parlia mentary mandate, while his erstwhile leader, G?mb?s, rejoined Bethlen's Government Party, began to rise through theministerial ranks, and in 1932 was appointed Prime Minister. Eckhardt, in contrast, remained steadfastiy in opposition to the Govern ment Party for the remainder of the inter-war period, and even launched a new opposition party dedicated to the defence of agricultural interests.At the same time, however, Eckhardt worked hard to jettison his right-radical baggage. He severed his linkswith the various quasi-fascist organizations in Hungary and the National Socialists in Germany, cultivated excellent relations with theAmerican ambassador to Budapest, embarked on various uninspiring lecture tours that asserted his foreign policy credentials, assumed themantle of leader ofHungary's campaign for the revision of thepost-World War One borders, and...

“Abandon Your Role as Exponents of the Magyars”: Contested Jewish Loyalty in Interwar (Czecho)Slovakia

On the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, October 28, 1926, the Neolog Jewish Community of Bratislava (Pozsony, Pressburg) gathered for a commemorative service led by their chief rabbi, Dr. Samuel Funk. They were joined by representatives of the government administration and other religious confessions. Toward the end of his sermon, an increasingly agitated Rabbi Funk turned and pointed with an angry finger at the members of the assimilationist Union of Slovak Jews (Sväz slovenských židov) in attendance from his position behind the podium. He publicly accused them of destroying Jewish unity and making it impossible for the Jewish Party to win a parliamentary mandate. He concluded his sermon by recalling a meeting that he had recently enjoyed with the president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. President Masaryk, Funk related, regarded it as very embarrasing that in spite of the 100,000 votes that the Jewish Party had received in 1925, it was not able to obtain even one parliamentary mandate. Funk reported that Masaryk only respected those Jews who declared Jewish as their nationality.

Dissent in a Party-Based Parliament

With a focus on the Portuguese case, this article shows how MPs express disagreement with their parties in a highly cohesive and party-dominated parliament. We review the features that explain why the Portuguese institutional framework reinforces party control over the parliamentary mandate and discuss the different ways Portuguese MPs express party dissent. In the last section of the article, we analyse data on voting for a period of just over 30 years. Contrary to what the literature tells us, Portuguese MPs have been breaching voting discipline regularly since 1976.

La influencia del constitucionalismo francés en la fase de iniciación constitucional española (1808-1834)

The influence of French constitutionalism is evident in the period of constitutional reaffirmation in Spain during the reign of Isabel II. This moderantist constitutional phase is committed to the «theory of the internal constitution» and takes as its point of departure the historical recognition of two basic principles that articulate (except for the democratic constitution of 1869 and the federal project of 1873) the Spanish constitutional and political reality: the Monarchy and Parliament. The shared sovereignty of the King and Parliament, together with a regime of collaboration between the powers arises from this reality. The French moderantism of the Charters of 1814 and 1830 is reflected in our Isabelline texts and the attempts at reform of the Constitution of 1845. The Constitutions of 1837 and 1845 break with the revolutionary liberalism of Cadiz (thus the Constitution of 1837) and they later accommodate it to a doctrinarian and transactional liberalism that will receive the European moderantist current, as can be observed in the 1845 text. As to the dogmatic context, for the first time in Spain a systemization of rights appears, postponing its development to the ordinary legislator. The shared sovereignty between the King and Parliament is the basic concept in order to understand the moderantism that can be appreciated in the Spanish texts of 1837 and 1845, as well as the French text of 1830. In contrast to the monocameralism of radical liberalism, a perfect bicameralism is consolidated between the lower house elected by universal suffrage and a Senate which acts as a moderator, not only due to its composition but also because it enjoys some competences similar to the elective House. Equally and omitting the first revolutionary liberalism, the rigid separation of powers gives way to a collaboration between them— appointment by the King of ministers who enjoy parliamentary support; the dissolution of Parliament by the King in the face of possible confrontation with the Government; compatibility of a ministerial post with a parliamentary mandate, fostering the powers of the Crown whose presence in the legislative context is quite intense, thus confirming a parliamentary regime whose precedents can be found while the Royal Statute in Spain and the Charter of 1814 in France were in force.

Elegidos y elegibles: la construcción teórica de la representación parlamentaria en la España isabelina

Taking the period from 1844 to 1868 as a chronological reference, this study attempts to understand the concept of political representation developed by Spanish liberalism in the mid 19th century We have selected the term eligible as the central element in our analysis of the debate that took place at the time and of the writing of the electoral laws, for it condenses a complex discussion of citizenship, political independence, and characterization of the parliamentary mandate. The figure of the eligible gave rise not only to passionate parliamentary speeches but also to a wide range of written works about political representation. It became, to a large extent, one of the main themes of the intellectual construction of Spanish Liberalism.

Die parlamentarische Vertretung von ethnischen Minderheiten und das österreichische Verfassungsrecht

SUMMARY The representation of ethnic minorities has remained an issue in the parliament of the Austrian Republic at the end of the twentieth century, just as it had been in that half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy a century earlier. However, in modern Austria theoretical discussions of the problem have not yet led to any attempt at a practical solution. Whereas the Dual Monarchy's system was based on the majority principle, so that the size of constituencies could be ‘gerrymandered’ to secure more seats for ethnic minorities, the republics since 1918 have been committed to proportional representation. The much smaller ethnic minorities in the twentieth century gave rise to little interest in their representation until after 1955, when the state undertook new obligations under international law, albeit in rather general terms committing it to ‘equal elections’ and ‘the rights of minorities’. The federal constitutional court had to consider these matters once the Slovenian minority in Carinthia brought a case in 1979 complaining of their non-representation in the provincial parliament. The court would not accept the argument that formal equality of votes did not lead to equality of representation. None of the subsequent proposals to alter the legal or constitutional framework so as to meet the demands of minorities in Carinthia or elsewhere in the Republic overcame the problems of misuse by those for whom the measures were not intended or the changing nature of minority groupings. Heinz Tichy concludes his review by arguing that present Austrian constitutional law guarantees equal rights for individuals, not collective groups, and merely allows for, but does not require, modifications to the electoral laws to secure representation for ethnic minorities. He warns that a special parliamentary mandate for relatively small national minorities might create more problems than it solved, and suggests instead following the Danish model of using lobbyists to represent minority interests.

Carrièrepatronen van Belgische parlementsleden in een multi-level omgeving (1979-99)

This article deals with the consequences of an increased number of levels of political decision-making, on the way in which political careers are built. In the traditional bottomup perspective, political careers started at the municipal level. The best were chosen to represent the party in regional assemblies, first, and eventually in the national parliament. In this perspective, a mandate of Member of European Parliament was the highest obtainable office. Evidence from the 1979-99 period shows that the importance of 'local political experience' in recruiting MPs is decreasing. However still, the Belgian figure remains high in comparative perspective : in 1999 no less than 70 % ofthe members of the federal House of Representatives and of the regional Flemish Parliament have previously been local councillor. Moreover, still 60 % combines a mandate as local councillor with their parliamentary mandate. Only a limited number ofpreviously regional Flemish MPs became federal MPs in 1999, so that one could not speak of frequent level-hopping, nor of a hierarchy among these offices.

The Hungarian Socialists in Opposition: Stagnation or Renaissance

After the Soviet military intervention in the October 1956 anti-communist revolution, First Secretary Janos Kadair re-established the Communist Party by large scale repression.' Beginning in the late 1960s, however, the government moved toward gradual changes and the Kadar reforms opened up the way to economic decentralisation, limited market orientation, Western contacts, increased living standards and reduced political tension. Hungary became a shop window generating rejection in the CMEA-WTO countries2 and skirting the limits of possibilities in the constant shadow of Soviet intolerance. Reacting to the Polish Solidarity movement in the 1980s the winds of change began to blow progressively more strongly and Kadair and his immediate entourage were removed from power in the party in 1988. The fastgrowing dissident movement, from within and from without the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP), pressed for system replacement, while the party tottered only on the verge of 'system-reforms' in the Gorbachevian sense. Events bypassed the stalling efforts of the party elite and the mass pressure and opposition groups forced the HSWP to negotiate a modus vivendi. The lengthy roundtable discussions in 1989 eventually led to system replacement and the transformation of the ruling party into an (intended) social-democratic/socialist party: the 'newly' founded Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP).3 The sequence of events between 1956 and 1989 seems to indicate that the left was rejected by society not only in its extreme form but also in the centre-left variant. Western reports on the first pluralist elections in 1990 were headlined as 'the defeat of the left', and the victorious right-conservative parties in Hungary also thought that the left was basically dead and had no future in the long run; it was the end not only of communism but of all left currents.4 This perception was the product of the euphoria over the collapse of one of the most repressive systems in world history. Under the surface, however, this assessment was contradicted both in society in general and in the political process in particular. Even though the HSP was behind three other parties in parliamentary mandates, with 10.9% of the votes it remained a relatively viable opposition force. Taken together with the other left votes in the 1990 elections, the overall strength of the left was well over 20%, and considering also the

Hong Kong – A Second System in One Single Country

Before handing over Hong Kong to Chinese administration, Beijing promised that “in Hong Kong the Hong Kongers will govern”. The essay evaluates to what extent Chinese promises have been kept. It deals with two aspects of the new arrangement: 1) the sharing of power over a “special admbzistrative region” between Hong Kong and Beijing, 2) the political system within Hong Kong itself.Under the Joint Declaration, Hong Kong retained many of its own attributes which distinguish it from the rest of the Chinese People’s Republic. The economic sphere is in many ways autonomous since China is anxious that it should function properly. But autonomy is questionable in practically all fundamental spheres of the political administration. This goes for the courts, legislative and executive power. Beijing is trying to keep in the background and maintain an appearance of autonomy but in reality it is gradually preparing the effective control of the whole administrative structure which it is able to use should developments in the region go beyond its concepts. The first year of the Chinese administration of Hong King has been astonishingly unspectacular. True, conditions are slowly being tightened up, but there has been no outrageous instance of repression by the state, the suppression of human rights, arrests, etc. The calm development has been helped by the situation in Beijing which, after the accession of Jiang Zemin, has experienced the biggest “thaw” since 1989. But in the autumn of 1998 it became clear that this was yet another of the regular cyclic phases of “relaxation – tightening”. And it is possible that a certain cooling down will appear also in Hong Kong.Beijing also exercised a decisive influence on the formulation of the constitutional Basic Law and on the establishment of a new political system. The government was made up of representatives of elite business circles with whom Beijing had been collaborating when taking over power. Alliance with business circles is part of the strategy of a “united front” to suppress the democratic opposition. The balance of power is considerably tilted in favour of the executive, and practices so far demonstrate that Prime Minister Tung Cheehua consistently bypasses Parliament in his decision-making.In the 1998 elections, the forces of the democratic opposition won 60% of the votes but under direct elections only one-third of the Legislative Council is appointed. Although the democrats clearly won the elections, their parliamentary mandates do not allow them to interfere in government policy.

Personal circulation in the Dutch second chamber 1888-1993: towards institutionalization and professionalization and then?

This article describes developments regarding institutionalization of the Dutch Second Chamber and professionalization of its members during a century, using two categories of data: on pre-parliamentarian political experience of the members on the one hand, on turnover, tenure and age at the other hand. Not all of the here investigated aspects lead to the same conclusion concerning the process of institutionalization. Institutionalization seems to be confirmed by the fact that the renewal rate points, in the postwar decades at least, more or less to some ?fossilization?. Tenure of parliamentary mandate, however, in the whole rather tends to decrease over time, at least until the seventies. In these last decades the renewal rate no longer was as strongly connected to the mean age as before. Pre-parliamentary political experience has been an important recruiting factor during the entire period. While local political experience slightly decreases, party experience among new members of parliament even increased since the thirties. MP's with previous political experience have been re-elected more frequently. Recent complaints about ?petrification? of parliament are less firmly grounded than supposed. * Address all communications to Wilhelmina P. Secker, Faculty of Law, Department of Parliamentary History, University of Leiden, Hugo de Grootstraat 27, 2300 RA Lei den, The Netherlands.