The Exceptional Model

2020 ◽  
pp. 276-318
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Change ◽  
The West ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Global Era

This chapter focuses China’s constitutional amendments in 1999, 2004, and 2018 in the global era. China’s Constitution and its amendment processes are surrounded by controversial constitutional dynamics, which struggled for rights and constitutional change. This chapter examines the formal constitutional change and the functional constitutional dynamics. It demonstrates that, in the era of globalization, constitutional change in China is being shaped by Chinese constitutional exceptionalism: the country’s confident attitude and belief in developing its own socialist constitutional model as a competitive alternative to those of the West.

Shaping Presidential Powers in Hungary: Convention, Tradition and Informal Constitutional Amendments

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 307-320
Author(s):  
Attila Vincze
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Fundamental Law ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Presidential Systems ◽  
Judicial Interpretations

Abstract There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.

RUSSIA'S 2020 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
William PARTLETT
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
The People ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Russian Constitution

Abstract This article will place the 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution in comparative perspective. Although these amendments were officially justified as strengthening the Russian state in order to tackle emerging new problems, they constitutionalise already-existing legislative trends from the last twenty years. They therefore do little to overcome existing problems of Russian state building. What was the reform process about then? It was intended to project the image of reform by involving the people in a staged process of constitutional change while further entrenching the power of the current political elite. The constitutional reforms therefore demonstrate the symbolic role that constitutional law can play in seeking to ensure the survival of mature or later-stage forms of authoritarian populism. This kind of ‘theatrical constitution-making’ is a broader reminder of how the expressive aspects of constitutional change can be (ab)used by established authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals The Choice of Constitutional Amendments in a Young Democracy – from Indirect to Direct Election of the President in Taiwan

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131
Author(s):  
Da-chi Liao ◽  
Hui-chih Chang
Keyword(s):  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Loss Minimization ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Direct Form ◽  
Power Maximization ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Masses

This paper attempts to determine the kind of constitutional rule preferred in a young democracy when an institutional opportunity for constitutional change occurs. It adopts the standpoint of collective decision-making. This approach involves two crucial theoretical elements: the calculation of the interests of the political elite and the masses' comprehension of what democracy is. The case studied here is Taiwan's constitutional choice between the direct and indirect election of the president during the period from 1990 to 1994. The paper first examines how the political leaders might have used both the logic of power maximization and of power-loss minimization to choose their position on the issue. It then demonstrates that survey results indeed showed that respondents better understood the direct form of electing the president and therefore supported it over the indirect one. This support helped the direct form to eventually win out.

Part II Negotiating Constitutionalism, Ch.8 Constitutional Change: a public choice analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajagopalan Shruti
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Relative Price ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Rule Changes

This chapter examines the patterns of amendments to the Indian Constitution, especially to the fundamental rights, throughout the country’s constitutional history. Instead of resorting to conventional doctrinal analysis, the discussion focuses on the issue of constitutional design by highlighting the costs and benefits imposed by different constitutional rules. It presents an analytical framework for constitutional amendments in order to elucidate the interaction of constitutional rules, along with the increase in the relative price of seeking formal amendments to the Constitution and how this has incentivised interest groups to seek rule changes through the judiciary. It explains how revisions in substantive and procedural rules changed the costs and benefits of amending the Indian Constitution, forcing interest groups to shift the form and forum while seeking rule change.

scholarly journals Constitutional reform processes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa K. Strzelecka ◽  
María Angustias Parejo
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
Constitutional Reforms ◽  
Revolutionary Movements ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter analyses the constitutional reform processes that have taken place in the MENA countries since the social uprisings in 2011. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the constitutional reform processes in order to offer key insights into these processes and to propose a typology of the dynamics of constitutional reform, and its scope in the MENA region. The aspects for analysis include procedures, consensus and dissent during the course of the constitutional process, and the content of the constitutional reforms. The emphasis is placed on the most important elements of the processes of constitutional change and of the content of the new constitutions, while paying particular attention to aspects related with the power of heads of state, the most frequently-debated reforms and the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights. The authors conclude that constitutional processes are relevant, but not determinant for democratic change, with the exception of Tunisia. The scope of the constitutional amendments has been limited and has perpetuated the dominance of the authoritarian rulers. Many of the constitutional reforms after the Arab Spring have been the product of strategies for survival by the respective regimes and were promoted ‘top-down’ through a process that, in many countries, excluded the revolutionary movements and opposition groups that were not loyal to the regime.

Concrete holiness and place attachment: Christian Zionist agricultural volunteers in Samaria

2022 ◽  
pp. 003776862110624
Author(s):  
Gideon Elazar ◽  
Miriam Billig
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
West Bank ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
The West ◽  
God's Will ◽  
Agricultural Work ◽  
Global Era ◽  
Christian Zionism ◽  
Religious Significance

Christian Zionism is a Protestant theology rooted in nineteenth-century Britain, advocating the return of Jews to the land of Israel as the fulfilment of God’s will and plan for the salvation of humanity. This article deals with the unique theology of the Christian Zionist group Hayovel, an organization dedicated to bringing Christian volunteers for agricultural work in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Based on fieldwork conducted among Hayovel volunteers, this article offers an analysis of Hayovel’s theology of rootedness and faith in the religious significance of the land. In contrast to mainstream Evangelical Christianity, Hayovel emphasizes the importance of sacred space and attempts to construct an experience of concrete holiness through agricultural work and touring the region’s Biblical sites. Hayovel’s activity is described here as the construction and cultivation of the Israel as a spatial and spiritual core and as a place of potential refuge and as a reaction to the increasing detachment from space in the global era.

Indonesia

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Bertrand
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
The Law

This chapter examines how Acehnese and Papuans negotiated the constitutional transition in Indonesia that led to the adoption of the Special Autonomy Law in 2001 for Papua and the Law on Aceh in 2006 for Aceh. Between 1998 and 2002, the People’s Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawarahtan Rakyat) embarked on several constitutional amendments. In 2001, the state adopted two special autonomy laws to address grievances in Aceh and Papua. The chapter first provides a background on the territorial cleavages that have characterized Indonesian politics before turning to the period of constitutional engagement that culminated in the adoption of the Law on Aceh and the Special Autonomy Law. It then considers the outcomes of the constitutional transition, with particular reference to decentralization and territorial cleavages in Aceh and Papua, and concludes with an analysis of the lessons that can be learned from Indonesia’s incrementalist and responsive approach to constitutional change.

Democratic Erosion, Populist Constitutionalism, and the Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments Doctrine

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-48
Author(s):  
Yaniv Roznai ◽  
Tamar Hostovsky Brandes
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
The World ◽  
Formal Procedures ◽  
Constitutional Changes

AbstractThe world is experiencing a crisis of constitutional democracies. Populist leaders are abusing constitutional mechanisms, such as formal procedures of constitutional change, in order to erode the democratic order. The changes are, very often, gradual, incremental, and subtle. Each constitutional change, on its own, may not necessarily amount to a serious violation of essential democratic values. Yet, when examined in the context of an ongoing process, such constitutional changes may prove to be part of the incremental, gradual process of democratic erosion in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This Article explores how courts can respond to such constitutional changes. We argue the Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment Doctrine should be adapted to respond to existing constitutional practices that utilize incremental and subtle amendments to dismantle the democratic order. We suggest that an aggregated judicial review should be developed. We must also rethink the automatic immunity – the result of two hundred years of revolutionary constitutional theory – provided to complete constitutional replacement from constitutional restrictions and scrutiny. Finally, as opposed to the instinct to require judicial self-restraint with respect to constitutional changes that concern the judiciary itself, we suggest that this is perhaps the type of changes that require strictest scrutiny.

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