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The Responsibility of the Government in the European Context: How European (parliamentary) Institutions work
Branko Smerdel
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
«By nature people submit to authority, but only a few are capable of cherishing moral principles» (Han Fei Tzu, 281-234 b.c.) The political responsibility of the executive, when dealing with the issue of ministerial responsibility before parliament, is not only a hot, topical issue for the Croatian parliamentary system, but it is also a key issue for parliamentary institutions in all the European parliamentary systems. For a country to become integrated in Europe, it must have a good knowledge of the nature of such issues, and also the means that modern European countries use to cope with them. At the beginning of this millennium, we have been able to observe both in Croatia and in Europe the complete domination of parties in parliamentary life, and significant changes in the understanding of ministerial responsibility. It has now become clear that that in exercising any form of responsibility constitutional provisions alone are not sufficient, an important role in that respect is also played by the media and public opinion in general. Contrary to views that the objective political responsibility for any error committed is a matter of ministerial responsibility, as the final line of defense from the omnipotence of the party apparata controlling the executive, the focus now is on attempts to restrict political corruption at the highest levels of the executive. Demands for the reinforcement of public morality in politics have produced poor results, and so in recent decades the attention has been redirected from demands for major changes to small but systematic institutional shifts in relations between the executive - parliament - judicial powers, with special importance being given to public opinion. The normative framework is being created through a system of ethical codes and regulations and through political will, which, in the final analysis, depends on periodic changes in the ruling parties. That would then become the real normative framework and the result of repetition ad infinitum that «it’s up to the institutions to do their job». Because of this, instead of having constant discussions on the models of government structure, we must turn to specific issues on how the parliamentary system actually works.
Ključne riječi
political responsibility; organization of government; parliament; government; European Union
Hrčak ID:
54997
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.6.2010.
Posjeta: 4.368 *