<i>Two Cheers for Minority Government: The Evolution of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy</i> (review)

In this study, we propose a new understanding, according to the principles of ‘humanistic interpretation’, of a fundamental layer of meaning in Utopia. In the work of Thomas More, major references can be found to the particular genesis and a crucial purpose of Utopia. Desiderius Erasmus arranged the acquaintance of Thomas More with Peter Giles, a key figure in the development of Erasmus as political thinker. More and Giles together in Antwerp (Giles’s home town), both jurists and humanists, would lay the foundation of Utopia. With this arranged contact, Erasmus handed over to More the knowledge of a particular political system - the earliest form of ‘parliamentary democracy’ in Early modern Europe - embedded in the political culture of the Duchy of Brabant and its constitution, named the ‘Joyous Entry’. We argue that Erasmus, through the indispensable politicalliterary skills of More in Utopia, intended to promote this political system as a new, political philosophy: applicable to all nations in the Respublica Christiana of Christian humanism. With reference to this genesis of Utopia in the text itself and its prefatory letters, we come to a clear recognition of Desiderius Erasmus in the figure of Raphael Hythlodaeus, the sailor who had discovered the ‘isle of Utopia’ and discoursed, as reported by More, about its ‘exemplary’ institutions.

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Bangladesh's Experiments with Parliamentary Democracy

Asian Survey ◽

10.1525/as.1997.37.6.01p0256x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 37 (6) ◽

pp. 575-589 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zillur R. Khan

Keyword(s):

Parliamentary Democracy

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Parliamentary Democracy and Reforms

Russian Social Science Review ◽

10.2753/rss1061-142834053 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 3-20

Keyword(s):

Parliamentary Democracy

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The Challenge of Mass Democracy

10.1093/oso/9780198791614.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin A. Schupmann

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Liberal Democracy ◽

The State ◽

Parliamentary Democracy ◽

The People ◽

State And Society ◽

Mass Democracy

Chapter 1 analyzes Schmitt’s assessment of democratic movements in Weimar and the gravity of their effects on the state and constitution. It emphasizes that the focus of Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar was mass democracy rather than liberalism. Schmitt warned that the combination of mass democracy, the interpenetration of state and society, and the emergence of total movements opposed to liberal democracy, namely the Nazis and the Communists, were destabilizing the Weimar state and constitution. Weimar, Schmitt argued, had been designed according to nineteenth century principles of legitimacy and understandings of the people. Under the pressure of mass democracy, the state was buckling and cannibalizing itself and its constitution. Despite this, Schmitt argued, Weimar jurists’ theoretical commitments left them largely unable to recognize the scope of what was occurring. Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar democracy was intended to raise awareness of how parliamentary democracy could be turned against the state and constitution.

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Division de pouvoir et intégration social: de Montesquieu à la crise actuelle du parlementarisme

Canadian Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s0008423900036775 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 261-269

Author(s):

André Vachet

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Political System ◽

Political Power ◽

Social Groups ◽

The Political ◽

Social Forces ◽

Parliamentary Democracy ◽

Social Division ◽

Western Democracy ◽

Vital Forces

Division of power and social integrationExplanation of some of the recent challenges to western democracy may be found in a re-examination of Montesquieu's thought. Here we find the theory of the separation of power to be far more complex than is implied in the simple divisions of legislature, executive, and judiciary. For Montesquieu, the separation of power is more a social division than a political or juridical one. He contemplated returning the organs of political power to various social forces, e.g. monarchy, aristocracy, and bourgeoisie, and that then the self-assertion of forces would be restrained by the resistance of other social groups. The realization of its goals would require every important social group to integrate itself both to society and to the state and to seek its goals through realization of the general good.Since Montesquieu's time, political structures would seem to have been very little changed even though social structures have been greatly altered by the rise of economic powers. Political institutions have been losing touch with the vital forces of society and these have had to find other channels of expression. The personalization of power, the rise of the executive, violence, and increasing paternalism may be viewed as phenomena of compensation by which attempts are being made to bridge the gap between the structures of political power and those of a society which has been restructured.Revigoration of parliamentary democracy would seem to require that all vital social forces be reintegrated into the political system and be given meaningful channels of political expression. Failure to make such changes opens the way to identification of the political powers with technocracy and the increasing general use of violence in the resolution of social problems.

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Inclusive vis-à-vis Exclusionary Constitution: An Analysis of the Current Constitutions of Nepal and Bhutan from Ethnic Lens

Millennial Asia ◽

10.1177/0976399620978635 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 097639962097863

Author(s):

Krishna Prasad Pandey

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

Point Of View ◽

Parliamentary Democracy ◽

Narrow Sense ◽

Large Section ◽

Royal Decree ◽

Constituent Assembly ◽

Democratic Rights ◽

Political Economic

Nepal and Bhutan, two Shangri-las of South Asia, share similar geo-political features but substantially differ in terms of demographic size and ethno-political history. The Constitution of Nepal 2015 which was promulgated by the second Constituent Assembly formed in 2013 came up with its inclusive character as it secured reasonable space for the ethnic minorities and owned their political, economic and cultural concerns. On the contrary, Bhutan adopted a different course in terms of accommodating ethnic and minority aspirations, although the country has also chosen parliamentary democracy in a narrow sense since 2008. From constitutional point of view, Nepal’s move from a liberal to an inclusive constitution made strenuous effort to bring all sections of Nepali society on board but Bhutan’s shift from a royal decree to an exclusionary constitution consciously left a large section of minority behind by suppressing their legitimate claims for basic democratic rights. This article explores the inclusive and exclusionary characters of the current constitutions of these countries from ethnic perspective.

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