Constitutions and Institutions

How do they operate?

What difference do they make in liberal democracies?

Some questions:

• What difference do constitutions make?– Are constitutions scraps of paper, as Bismarck

argued?

OR– Do constitutions spell out relationships between

different institutions, e.g.• Between parliament and the executive?

• Between central and provincial governments?

A quick refresher: varieties of political systems

Liberal democracies:

Canada

Britain

France

Germany

United States

Semi-democracies:

Russia

Ukraine ?

Egypt

Algeria

Serbia

Authoritarian systems:

China

Iraq ??

Iran

Saudi Arabia

North Korea

Unitary vs. federal systems:

• Unitary system -- sovereignty concentrated in a central government:– Power may be devolved to regional governments,

created by the central government

– But devolved powers can be withdrawn (e.g. Northern Ireland)

• Federal system: sovereignty shared by a central government and provincial governments -- neither is capable of abolishing the other

Presidential v. Parliamentary v. semi-presidential systems

• Presidential system: political executive is separate from the legislature

• Parliamentary system: the political executive must serve with the support (or at a minimum, the forbearance) of a majority of the lower house of parliament

• Semi-presidential system: combines features of both: – Directly elected president– Premier, typically appointed by the president, must serve

with the confidence of the parliament

Forms of liberal democracies (and semi-democracies)Parliamentary Semi-

Presidential

Presidential

Unitary UK France Uruguay

Federal Canada

Germany

Australia

Russia US

Mexico

Four cases:

Britain:

Unitary

parliamentary

France:

Unitary

Semi-presidential

Germany:

Federal

Parliamentary

United States:

Federal

Presidential

An argument:

Constitutions matter, and matter a great deal, when political leaders follow them:

• Courts increasingly enforce constitutions• But we need to look not only at the

constitution on paper, but the way in which it is brought off paper and how it evolves

• Valid not only for liberal democracies, but also semi-democracies and some authoritarian political systems

Reasons for this: (a preliminary take)

Institutions (and the shape they take) matter:• Institutions shape the ways in which political

forces are expressed and channelled, in particular– some of the demands which end up on the political

agenda

– the ease with which conflicts can be resolved

• Example: variation ways in which regional and cultural differences are expressed and dealt with in federal and unity systems

Variations in power of political executives

UK:

• Unwritten constitution

• Parliamentary system: – Prime Minister and Cabinet serve with the

confidence of parliament– Because the single member plurality electoral

system usually manufactures majorities, the government usually has the support of a parliamentary majority

Some questions:

• How powerful are the political executives in different forms of liberal democracies?

• What role do assemblies play? Are legislative assemblies capable of controlling political executives?– If so how?– What differences do parties and party systems

make?

• What difference does federalism make?