Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2023.2169409
Alicia Cebada Romero
ABSTRACT The Spanish Council of State is an institution with a long history. Under the current Spanish Constitution it is defined as the supreme consultative body of the Spanish Government. This article analyses the basic features of the Council of State focusing on its coexistence with the consultative bodies operating at the level of the regional governments in Spain. Looking to the future, the demand for more transparency and the publication of the Council of State’s opinions has to be balanced with the need to avoid the political instrumentalization of the Council of State as an institution as well as its reports.
{"title":"A challenged council: the Spanish State Council between a decentralized advisory function and the publicity of opinions","authors":"Alicia Cebada Romero","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2023.2169409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2023.2169409","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Spanish Council of State is an institution with a long history. Under the current Spanish Constitution it is defined as the supreme consultative body of the Spanish Government. This article analyses the basic features of the Council of State focusing on its coexistence with the consultative bodies operating at the level of the regional governments in Spain. Looking to the future, the demand for more transparency and the publication of the Council of State’s opinions has to be balanced with the need to avoid the political instrumentalization of the Council of State as an institution as well as its reports.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"82 1","pages":"50 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80487630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2023.2169411
N. Lupo, Claudio Tucciarelli
ABSTRACT This article, after a brief historical overview, recalls that the Italian Council of State carries out two main functions: judicial, through second instance judgements of administrative court’s decisions; and advisory, on special appeals to the President of the Republic, single questions, and draft regulation. The main features of the Council of State’s advisory functions are analysed, devoting special attention to most recent trends, which show how the advisory function tends to go beyond individual cases and opinions in order to support reform processes as a whole.
{"title":"The advisory functions of the Italian Council of State","authors":"N. Lupo, Claudio Tucciarelli","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2023.2169411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2023.2169411","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article, after a brief historical overview, recalls that the Italian Council of State carries out two main functions: judicial, through second instance judgements of administrative court’s decisions; and advisory, on special appeals to the President of the Republic, single questions, and draft regulation. The main features of the Council of State’s advisory functions are analysed, devoting special attention to most recent trends, which show how the advisory function tends to go beyond individual cases and opinions in order to support reform processes as a whole.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"1 1","pages":"77 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83591684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-06DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2148505
A. Azlan, M. M. Nadzri
ABSTRACT The proliferation of regime types in the post-Cold War era suggests that the foundation of authoritarianism is highly embedded within the power structure of the ruling elites. In the context of Malaysian politics, the dominant parties constitute the exclusive power bank that projects its desired mechanism of control over the institutions within the political structure. Theoretically, the existence of a parliament signifies the presence of institutionalized democratic procedures, albeit to a varying degree, in a political system. In reality, however, parliaments under semi-authoritarian regimes simply serve the interests of the power holders. Dominant parties strategically exercise their authority to maintain control over the authoritarian regime under the guise of parliamentary democracy. Drawing from Marina Ottaway’s framework on semi-authoritarianism, this article offers two major arguments. First, the parliamentary motion is an integral feature that contours Malaysia’s semi-authoritarian regime, which palpably had led to weak institutionalization. Secondly, strategic semi-authoritarian responses to key issues raised by the opposition have proved to be a success in restricting and subverting opposition-led mobilizations and their extra-parliamentary behaviour, thus further consolidating the semi-authoritarian structure.
{"title":"Parliamentary motions under a semi-authoritarian regime: evidence from Malaysia","authors":"A. Azlan, M. M. Nadzri","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2148505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2148505","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The proliferation of regime types in the post-Cold War era suggests that the foundation of authoritarianism is highly embedded within the power structure of the ruling elites. In the context of Malaysian politics, the dominant parties constitute the exclusive power bank that projects its desired mechanism of control over the institutions within the political structure. Theoretically, the existence of a parliament signifies the presence of institutionalized democratic procedures, albeit to a varying degree, in a political system. In reality, however, parliaments under semi-authoritarian regimes simply serve the interests of the power holders. Dominant parties strategically exercise their authority to maintain control over the authoritarian regime under the guise of parliamentary democracy. Drawing from Marina Ottaway’s framework on semi-authoritarianism, this article offers two major arguments. First, the parliamentary motion is an integral feature that contours Malaysia’s semi-authoritarian regime, which palpably had led to weak institutionalization. Secondly, strategic semi-authoritarian responses to key issues raised by the opposition have proved to be a success in restricting and subverting opposition-led mobilizations and their extra-parliamentary behaviour, thus further consolidating the semi-authoritarian structure.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"41 1","pages":"127 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82684862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2130532
Cristiana Senigaglia
tive interpretation of the Fourth Republic, tracing its original weakness instead to a turbulent constitutional process, marked by the division and clashes of the first assembly, the failure to pass a first draft, and the urgent need to ratify a second one quickly. The analysis proposed in the chapters dedicated to France lay the groundwork for a reflection on Italy; it is easy to see the parallel with the French process, which took place in the fall of 1945 and thus before the Italian one. The authors of the Italian constitution were able to observe and learn from the French process, which became a reference point in terms of both the content and the dynamics at play. This was especially true of the unfortunate referendum result of the first draft, which prompted the Italians to adopt caution and a general proclivity for compromise – or at least for steering clear of unsolvable debates. Following these considerations, in his final chapters, the author chooses to focus on the role played by Togliatti’s party during the constitutional process, comparing the strategies of Italian communists with those of the French. While the French Communist Party had ‘stressed the importance of the “means” (a ‘hyper-parliamentary’ form of government) over the “goal” (economic and social reforms), the Italian Communist Party’s priority was the reverse’ (p. 208). What transpires, then, is a reflection on the birth of the Italian, which emphasizes a prolonged period of traction with a generally united front, diametrically opposed in spirit to the urgency that animated the frantic drafting of the second version of the French constitution – later ratified through a referendum, giving birth to the Fourth Republic. This may appear to be a paradox, given France’s long constitutional tradition, but only on the surface: as the author explains, it was precisely its strong ties to republican values that allowed members of the assembly – especially Communists – to firmly hold their ground with the risk, which did come about, of thwarting a possible compromise. At the same time, this led to the assembly giving up a broad declaration of human rights, at the cost of weakening the final draft; such a declaration was included in the original version and replaced in the final text by a more modest preamble that directly references the principles of the French Revolution. The resulting constitution was one ratified ‘without enthusiasm’, a very different outcome than in Italy, where the various political players worked together towards a deeply and broadly heartfelt goal: that the first breath of the new constitution to be loud and passionate, as a testament to its health, and as a commitment to the Republic’s longevity.
{"title":"Der Weimarer Reichstag: Die schleichende Ausschaltung, Entmachtung und Zerstörung eines Parlaments [The Weimar Reichstag: the creeping exclusion, disempowerment and dissolution of a parliament]","authors":"Cristiana Senigaglia","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2130532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2130532","url":null,"abstract":"tive interpretation of the Fourth Republic, tracing its original weakness instead to a turbulent constitutional process, marked by the division and clashes of the first assembly, the failure to pass a first draft, and the urgent need to ratify a second one quickly. The analysis proposed in the chapters dedicated to France lay the groundwork for a reflection on Italy; it is easy to see the parallel with the French process, which took place in the fall of 1945 and thus before the Italian one. The authors of the Italian constitution were able to observe and learn from the French process, which became a reference point in terms of both the content and the dynamics at play. This was especially true of the unfortunate referendum result of the first draft, which prompted the Italians to adopt caution and a general proclivity for compromise – or at least for steering clear of unsolvable debates. Following these considerations, in his final chapters, the author chooses to focus on the role played by Togliatti’s party during the constitutional process, comparing the strategies of Italian communists with those of the French. While the French Communist Party had ‘stressed the importance of the “means” (a ‘hyper-parliamentary’ form of government) over the “goal” (economic and social reforms), the Italian Communist Party’s priority was the reverse’ (p. 208). What transpires, then, is a reflection on the birth of the Italian, which emphasizes a prolonged period of traction with a generally united front, diametrically opposed in spirit to the urgency that animated the frantic drafting of the second version of the French constitution – later ratified through a referendum, giving birth to the Fourth Republic. This may appear to be a paradox, given France’s long constitutional tradition, but only on the surface: as the author explains, it was precisely its strong ties to republican values that allowed members of the assembly – especially Communists – to firmly hold their ground with the risk, which did come about, of thwarting a possible compromise. At the same time, this led to the assembly giving up a broad declaration of human rights, at the cost of weakening the final draft; such a declaration was included in the original version and replaced in the final text by a more modest preamble that directly references the principles of the French Revolution. The resulting constitution was one ratified ‘without enthusiasm’, a very different outcome than in Italy, where the various political players worked together towards a deeply and broadly heartfelt goal: that the first breath of the new constitution to be loud and passionate, as a testament to its health, and as a commitment to the Republic’s longevity.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"13 1","pages":"348 - 350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73095401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2138190
J. Makita
ABSTRACT This article focuses on Legislative Supporting Agencies (LSAs) as agencies supporting the activities of the legislature. It elucidates the relationship between the institutional development of LSAs’ and other political factors, paying attention to the characteristics of the parliamentary system. The main factors that influenced the development of LSAs’ are presented. These factors are the classification of legislatures as arena-type or transformative-type and the actors that have a legislative supporting function other than LSAs in parliamentary countries (bureaucrats and parliamentary group staff). An important suggestion for the causation between these factors and the development of LSA's can be made as a result of statistical analyses.
{"title":"The institutional development of Legislative Supporting Agencies (LSAs) focusing on the differences among parliamentary-system countries","authors":"J. Makita","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2138190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2138190","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article focuses on Legislative Supporting Agencies (LSAs) as agencies supporting the activities of the legislature. It elucidates the relationship between the institutional development of LSAs’ and other political factors, paying attention to the characteristics of the parliamentary system. The main factors that influenced the development of LSAs’ are presented. These factors are the classification of legislatures as arena-type or transformative-type and the actors that have a legislative supporting function other than LSAs in parliamentary countries (bureaucrats and parliamentary group staff). An important suggestion for the causation between these factors and the development of LSA's can be made as a result of statistical analyses.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"136 1","pages":"324 - 340"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76453252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2139530
Michael Hunklinger
ABSTRACT This article is a comprehensive analysis of the democratic benefit of a democratic innovation introduced to the Austrian Parliament in the year 2014–15: the Consultative Committee of Inquiry to Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Austria. As a novelty, eight citizens, selected by lot, were included to participate in this committee. This article looks at the perceptions of these citizens (gathered via interviews), committee protocols and media coverage. The committee deepened the lack of trust in politics, and it fell prey to party politics. Pseudo-participation to window-dress problems is likely to be detected by participants and the media, especially when they occur in established forms of deliberation. This article shows that, instead of enhancing democracy, democratic innovations can backfire.
{"title":"Inside the innovation: participants’ perceptions of the Consultative Committee of Inquiry to Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Austria, 2014–15","authors":"Michael Hunklinger","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2139530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2139530","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is a comprehensive analysis of the democratic benefit of a democratic innovation introduced to the Austrian Parliament in the year 2014–15: the Consultative Committee of Inquiry to Enhance the Quality of Democracy in Austria. As a novelty, eight citizens, selected by lot, were included to participate in this committee. This article looks at the perceptions of these citizens (gathered via interviews), committee protocols and media coverage. The committee deepened the lack of trust in politics, and it fell prey to party politics. Pseudo-participation to window-dress problems is likely to be detected by participants and the media, especially when they occur in established forms of deliberation. This article shows that, instead of enhancing democracy, democratic innovations can backfire.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"252 1","pages":"283 - 297"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86712496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2158653
{"title":"75th Conference of the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI)","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2158653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2158653","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"21 1","pages":"364 - 365"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80695755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2139531
Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho
ABSTRACT As in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and wider Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Portugal's main towns and cities were ruled by a small number of men, who made up a power elite. Such power elites were recruited from the bosom of the urban economic, cultural, and social elites. This group, however, was even more restricted, as during that period municipal governance lay in the hands of few officials and homens bons (boni homines). It was from among this restricted group of rulers that the municipal representatives to the cortes were chosen. This article will approach the discourse employed by the elites in the cortes based on the political concept of the ‘common good’ — an ideological concept in which a collective benefit prevails over private interests. In the argumentative rhetoric that was the discourse provided alongside requests and grievances aired on the stage of the cortes, the public good and common good were presented as objectives of good governance and fair decisions required as part of the political process. It is clear, however, that it was an open concept employed by different actors for various practical purposes as it will be explained.
{"title":"The ‘common good’ in the petitions and appeals of the medieval towns at the Portuguese Cortes","authors":"Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2139531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2139531","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and wider Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Portugal's main towns and cities were ruled by a small number of men, who made up a power elite. Such power elites were recruited from the bosom of the urban economic, cultural, and social elites. This group, however, was even more restricted, as during that period municipal governance lay in the hands of few officials and homens bons (boni homines). It was from among this restricted group of rulers that the municipal representatives to the cortes were chosen. This article will approach the discourse employed by the elites in the cortes based on the political concept of the ‘common good’ — an ideological concept in which a collective benefit prevails over private interests. In the argumentative rhetoric that was the discourse provided alongside requests and grievances aired on the stage of the cortes, the public good and common good were presented as objectives of good governance and fair decisions required as part of the political process. It is clear, however, that it was an open concept employed by different actors for various practical purposes as it will be explained.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"127 1","pages":"223 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73656801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2133371
Magnus Linnarsson
ABSTRACT This article analyses how notions of parliamentary sovereignty, were posited against universal principles of the separation of powers, using the debate in the Swedish Diet (Riksdag) in 1769 on the Act of Security as an example. The act was launched as an attack on the prevailing parliamentary sovereignty. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the Riksdag had established itself as the sovereign power in Swedish politics and its critics argued for the need of personal and material security. The analysis shows how egalitarian ideas and democratic elements became part of the political discourse. This article argues that this debate was decisive for the coming end of the Swedish Age of Liberty (1719–72), and that it exemplifies a political conflict between radicals and conservatives. It also shows how the debate was a battle for alternative paths of state formation. Either a strong state, dominated by elite groups with capacity to control policy, or a more participatory government, with traces of early democratization. The analysis draws on two key analytical concepts: the ‘rule of law' and ‘political participation’. In the debate, the rule of law became an instrument for limiting political participation when the aristocracy tried to strengthen its powers.
{"title":"Radicalism in the old regime: the challenge of parliamentary sovereignty in Sweden, 1769–70","authors":"Magnus Linnarsson","doi":"10.1080/02606755.2022.2133371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2022.2133371","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses how notions of parliamentary sovereignty, were posited against universal principles of the separation of powers, using the debate in the Swedish Diet (Riksdag) in 1769 on the Act of Security as an example. The act was launched as an attack on the prevailing parliamentary sovereignty. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the Riksdag had established itself as the sovereign power in Swedish politics and its critics argued for the need of personal and material security. The analysis shows how egalitarian ideas and democratic elements became part of the political discourse. This article argues that this debate was decisive for the coming end of the Swedish Age of Liberty (1719–72), and that it exemplifies a political conflict between radicals and conservatives. It also shows how the debate was a battle for alternative paths of state formation. Either a strong state, dominated by elite groups with capacity to control policy, or a more participatory government, with traces of early democratization. The analysis draws on two key analytical concepts: the ‘rule of law' and ‘political participation’. In the debate, the rule of law became an instrument for limiting political participation when the aristocracy tried to strengthen its powers.","PeriodicalId":53586,"journal":{"name":"Parliaments, Estates and Representation","volume":"33 1","pages":"233 - 252"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73272626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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