Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 463-483
Author(s):  
Alexander Herzog ◽  
Slava Jankin Mikhaylov ◽  
Liam Weeks

The Irish parliament is considered one of the weaker international chambers. The government dominates the legislative process, and parliament is little more than an arena for its members to air constituency grievances. That this happens with the operation of the single transferable vote electoral system, which incentivizes personal behavior by deputies, is a conundrum. We seek to explain legislative activity in the Dáil by focusing on the background of its members from 1989 to 2011. We find that gender and seniority have little effect, and that party hierarchy is important. Generally speaking, those higher up in a party are more active in parliament.

Author(s):  
Жанна Тлембаева ◽  
Zhanna Tlembaeva

Some issues of lawmaking activity planning in the Republic of Kazakhstan as one of the important components of legislative activity are discussed, and its importance in improving legislation is analyzed in the article. The author pays special attention to the types and stages of the legislative process In the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main problems of planning the legislative activity of the Government and of other subjects of lawmaking are considered. Also the ways to improve the planning of lawmaking activity taking into account the current realities of the development of the legislative process in the Republic of Kazakhstan are proposed. Planning of legislative activities in Kazakhstan needs to be improved and, first of all, by means of increasing the information transparency of planning, the development of forecasting, improving the coordination of planning of subjects of the right of legislative initiative and the development of regulatory support for planning. The issues of application of technologies of legislative forecasting as an obligatory element of lawmaking are separately considered. The conclusion about the role of planning of lawmaking activity in counteraction to the processes of «shadow lobbying» is substantiated. It seems that the implementation of these proposals will ensure an increased role for planning in the country’s legislative process. In the context of the problems studied, the question of the legislative activity of the subjects of the legislative initiative and the subjects of lawmaking has considerable scientific and practical interest. The author reveals a tendency to reduce the lawmaking activity of the deputies of the Parliament against the backdrop of the growing legislative activity of the Government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Z.O. Pogorelova

The article is devoted to the study of the nature of the legislative pover and the disclosure of its role to serve as a legitimate basis for legislative activity. The provision is substantiated that the parliament, as a representative body of the whole people, has the highest level of legitimacy and on this basis exercises the right to legislate public relations according to the principle of separation of powers, including the exclusive right to regulate the most important issues of organization and exercise of power (article 92 of the Constitution of Ukraine). The relationship between the concepts of legislative power and legislative activity of the parliament is revealed and the recognition of the legislative activity of the parliament as the main, key function of the parliament and the organizational way of implementing the legislative power of the state is substantiated. The conditions, scope, limits, advantages and disadvantages of the practice of delegated legislation, which is widespread in democratic countries, as well as the legally sanctioned government rule-making on the basis of the instructions of the government provided by separate laws are investigated. The powers of the parliament in the field of law-making  activity are analyzed, the source of which is the legislative power delegated by the people to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, due to which the parliament receives from the people the primary right to carry out its law-making activity. The essence of legislative activity carried out within the legislative process is revealed, as activity on revealing of need for legal regulation of public relations, estimation of draft laws, their completion, carrying out professional examination, discussion and completion in committees, i.e. all actions directed on proper elaboration of laws’ projects. It is noted that the legislative process is not only and not so much limited by parliament, but also includes pre-parliamentary stages of work on the draft law (initiation, drafting, public discussion, examination, coordination with interested bodies and organizations). The general characteristic of subjects of law-making activity is given, the nature of powers of parliament on the organization and implementation of control over law-making activity is analyzed.  


1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menachem Elon

To answer the question whether the Israel legal system is based on Jewish Law foundations we must examine the two main operative factors which affect and control the nature of that system, that is, the legislative activity of the Knesset and the judicial activity of the courts. The fact that Israel law recognizes, though to a limited extent, the principle of binding precedent renders the courts active participants in the law-making process. This freedom of activity is restricted and operates only within the framework of the provisions of existing positive law, but this framework is quite flexible, as we shall later have occasion to note. Such restriction does not exist at all with regard to the Knesset's legislative activity. The Knesset is the sovereign legislature, unfettered even by a Constitution, and is free to make such law as it deems fit. The question, therefore, is on what assumptions do the various elements—the Ministry of Justice, the Government and the Knesset—engaged in the legislative process, function generally with regard to the subserving sources and more particularly with regard to the manner in which the law of the State is to rest upon Jewish Law.It is difficult from an examination even of a representative sample of enactments passed by the Knesset to affirm that a clear and consistent policy indeed exists in this important regard, but from time to time expression has been given by those concerned to some of these underlying assumptions and it is proper that we should glance at these.


1910 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Ashburner

The origin of the little code for the government of Byzantine agriculturists, which is known in the manuscripts as the Farmer's Law (νόμος γϵωργικός), has occasioned some difference of opinion among the learned men who have dealt with it. The greatest authority on Byzantine law, Zachariä von Lingenthal, changed his mind on the subject. He began by thinking it the work of a private hand—the compiler of the Appendix Eclogae—and assigning it to the eighth or ninth century (Historiae Juris Graeco-Romami Delineatio, p. 32). It was put together, in his opinion, partly from the legislation of Justinian and partly from local custom. According to his last view (Geschichte des Griechisch-römischen Rechts, 3rd ed. pp. 249 sqq.) it is a product of the legislative activity of the emperors Leo and Constantine and was enacted about the year 740 A.D.


2021 ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Sergey S. Novoselskii ◽  

The article considers the attitude of representatives of the top bureaucracy to the draft of the State Duma, developed by a Special Council chaired by the Minister of the Interior A.G. Bulygin in 1905. Particular attention is paid to the high officials assessments of the dignitaries of the place and role of the Duma in the system of state administration of the Russian Empire, the arguments that officials cited in favor of its convocation. It analyzes intellectual context of the emergence of the “bulyginskaya duma” (“Bulygin Duma”) project is analyzed, which largely determined the breadth of the actual, not declared powers of the people’s agency. The research is based on unpublished documents from the funds of state institutions, as well as materials from the personal funds of officials and public figures. The article shows that, despite the legislative nature of the Duma, it had to have significant powers. The electoral system, which was proposed and defended by the high officials, was originally modeled in such a way as to avoid the triumph of the estates principle. The monarch’s open opposition to the people’s agency was considered a politically short-sighted move, which indicated a limitation of his power. The results of the study allow considering the government policy in 1905 not as an untimely response to public demands, but as a conscious strategy for systemic political reforms.


1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 464-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil C. M. Elder

The joint standing committees of the Swedish Parliament are unique institutions of particular interest to the political analyst. They are the very linchpin of the legislative process in Sweden; they mediate in the event of intercameral disputes; and they even arrogate to themselves quasi-governmental powers when the government cannot muster a majority in the legislature.


Author(s):  
Teimuraz Kareli

The article deals with the features of formation of the party systems in the post-Soviet space. To understand the specific processes, the attention is focused on the inverse logic of the post-Soviet states, the basic features of which can be expressed by the concept of neopatrimonialism. In this context the functioning features of political parties, their principal tasks and the logic of creating the "power party" are described. The article examines the key criteria for the concept of the dominant party, such as its ability to consistently and steadily win the elections, the significant duration of its stay in power, as well as its personnel Control over the government. In the sociopolitical discourse the "power party" enjoys a privileged ideological position and has more opportunities compared to its competitors to appeal to voters. Along with that the party dominance reveals itself not only in its external manifestation (the stay in power), but also in the substantial one – the ability to exercise an effective political choice. The article analyzes the factors of sustainability of the "power party" systems: the historical merits of the "power party"; the ruling party’s ability to effectively take advantage of the electoral system; its strong relationships with the most affluent social groups and major corporations, as well as with the predominant ethnic or linguistic social groups; a privileged access of the ruling party to media resources. These factors are also effective in the polycentric political systems without any dominant party. However, under the dominant party systems they manifest themselves in a complex way, providing the ruling camp with a multi-layered protection due to a synergy effect. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of clientelism, widely used by the ruling party as a strategy of political mobilization. However, if discrimination arose by clientelism reaches the level that denies clients the right to choose, this is certainly not consistent with the rules of democracy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-1) ◽  
pp. 62-91
Author(s):  
Irina Zhezhko-Braun ◽  

This article is the third and final in a series dealing with the birth of a new political elite in the United States, the minority elite. In previous articles, the mechanism of its appearance was analyzed, as well as its ideology, goals, program and values. The black movement, as the most co-organized of all protest movements, is entering the final phase of its development, being engaged in the placement of its representatives in state and federal governments, political parties and other social institutions. The women’s movement has recently been taken over by ethnic movements, primarily blacks, and has become their vanguard. This article describes new social elevators for the promotion of minority representatives into the corridors of power. The logic of promoting people of their own race, gender and nationality to the highest branches of power began to prevail over other criteria for recruiting personnel. During the 2020 election campaign, a new mechanism for promoting minorities in all branches of government was formed. It is based on numerous violations of local and federal electoral legislation. The mechanism of pressure on the US electoral system is analyzed using the example of the state of Georgia and the activities of politician Stacey Abrams. The article describes Abrams’ strategy to create a network of NGOs that are focused on one mission - to arrange for the political shift of the state in the elections. These organizations circumvented existing laws, making the state of Georgia the record holder for electoral irregularities and lawsuits. The article shows that Abrams’ struggle with the electoral laws of her state is based on the political myth of the voter suppression of minorities. The author identifies a number of common characteristics of the new elite. The minority elite does not show any interest in social reconciliation and overcoming racial conflict, but rather makes efforts to incite the latter, to attract the government to its side and increase its role in establishing “social justice” through racial quotas and infringement of the rights of those social strata that it has appointed bearers of systematic racism in society. As the colored elite increases and the government’s role in resolving racial conflicts grows, the minority movement is gradually condemned, it ceases to be a true grassroots movement and turns into astroturfing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Melanie Müller ◽  
Marcus Höreth

Government stability in the German Bundestag is traditionally tied to a parliamentary majority and an opposition minority . Nonetheless, minority governments in other Western democracies show that, despite the lack of a parliamentary majority, they govern stable and effectively together with the opposition . In this article, on the Swedish case, we examine how opposition parties in parliament are involved in the legislative process in a minority government and what patterns they follow in order to maintain governmental stability without neglecting their alternative function . The paper combines theoretical and concep­tual considerations on the adequate understanding of the opposition in the Federal Repub­lic of Germany with empirical findings on cooperation and conflicts between opposition party groups and minority governments . The results show that opposition parties strategi­cally switch between confrontational (Westminster-style) and consensual patterns of behav­ior (republican) . Through this flexible majority finding, opposition parties in parliament can alternately present themselves as policymakers or as an alternative counterpart to the government . This opposition behavior is functionally adequate under the conditions of a pluralized and fragmented party system and the resulting difficulties in forming a stable government majority .


3.8 The standard layout of a treaty A treaty, like English legislation, has a standard format. At the beginning of the treaty is a preamble setting out the main goals of the treaty and the aspirations of the parties. It is divided into clusters of items dealing with similar matters. Each cluster is called a title (which roughly equates with the division of an English statute into parts). Titles contain numbered items called Articles, each one setting out a basic rule or principle. Articles can be divided into paragraphs and subparagraphs. The numbering system is Arabic and it not as dense and complex as that used by English statutes. Figure 5.3: standard layout of a treaty 5.3.9 How do obligations entered into through treaties become part of English law? If the UK government wishes all, or part of a treaty, to become part of English law it must specifically incorporate the treaty, or part of it, into the English legal system via legislation. This legislation goes through the same procedures as any other piece of legislation. If the government expects the treaty to give rise to a range of other measures over time it will usually place sections in this legislation delegating the authority to make later legal changes to others (such as the minister of appropriate government departments). This saves time as there is no need for the full legislative process in Parliament. Whilst it is still the subject of parliamentary debate, it does have a fast track procedure. In relation to treaties becoming part of English law in this way, there is always the possibility that Parliament may refuse to enact the legislation, which would leave the government in an extremely difficult situation. However, the UK Parliament is usually controlled by the political party forming the government and the government would not risk the embarrassment of failure but would guage its position in Parliament prior to signature of a relevant treaty.

2012 ◽  
pp. 132-133

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document