Preliminary communication

The Transformed Function of Parliamentarism

Davor Rodin ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The author deals with the transformation of the role of parliamentarism in modern democratic countries. Drawing on the views of Carl Schmitt, the author argues that the parliament as a political institution is in a crisis because its decisions are based on the will of the party or coalition in power rather than on the most pertinent arguments. Therefore, the author suggests that there is a crisis of parliamentarism, which he, referring to Schmitt, assesses as a rejection of argumentative parliamentary democracy to the advantage of a democracy characterised by a confl ict of various party interests. According to the author, this implies that parliament members represent the interests of their parties, to which they are directly responsible, and no longer the people, as summarised by Niklas Luhmann’s assessment that “parties have disempowered their members of parliament”. In the second part of the paper, the author discusses the transformation of the legislative function of parliaments. In doing so, he follows the normative view that the parliament must fall back to the framework of its political function and reassess its position as exclusive legislator. In the author’s opinion, the problem is that its legislative monopoly makes it immune to extraparliamentary and judicial legislative initiatives.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

38286

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/38286

Publication date:

1.6.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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