Skip to main content
Book cover

Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe pp 1–9Cite as

Introduction

  • 558 Accesses

Part of the Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft book series (VGPO)

Abstract

On December 1, 2013, the Croatian voters adopted a constitutional amendment in a referendum. It changed Art. 62 of the Croatian constitution, declaring marriage a union between a woman and a man.

Keywords

  • Comparative Politics
  • Constitutional Amendment
  • Constitutional Change
  • Constitutional Order
  • Constitutional Development

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-13762-5_1
  • Chapter length: 9 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-658-13762-5
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In Lithuania, two similar initiatives have failed up until 2014. All references to individual countries refer to the respective country chapters in this volume.

  2. 2.

    Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, and Slovenia have at least introduced various forms of recognized partnerships (Wikipedia 2015).

  3. 3.

    For further information on the network, see its website at https://verfassungspolitik.wordpress.com, last accessed December 31, 2015.

  4. 4.

    We have excluded Kosovo, since its state-building started in 2008 only, and its status remains highly controversial both in political terms and according to international law.

  5. 5.

    This especially applies to authoritarian contexts (particularly Russia), but also to countries in which the constitutional law not only consists of the constitution itself, but also includes additional constitutional laws (Czech Republic, Estonia, and Slovakia).

  6. 6.

    The selection criterion is here that such attempts at least have reached the formal amendment procedure as outlined by the valid constitution.

  7. 7.

    One rare exception is Köppl (2003).

References

  • Albi, Anneli. 2005. EU Enlargement and the Constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Arato, Andrew. 2000. Civil Society, Constitution, and Legitimacy. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arato, Andrew. 2012. Conventions, Constituent Assemblies, and Round Tables. Models, Principles and Elements of Democratic Constitution-Making. Global Constitutionalism 1(1): 173–200.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Banting, Keith G., and Richard Simeon. 1985. Introduction: The Politics of Constitutional Change. In The Politics of Constitutional Change in Industrial Nations. Redesigning the State, ed. idem, 1–29. London, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behnke, Nathalie. 2009. Agenda-Setting für Verfassungsreformen. Jahrbuch für Handlungs- und Entscheidungstheorie 5: 7–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behnke, Nathalie, Bettina Petersohn, Andrea Fischer-Hotzel, and Dominic Heinz. 2011. Measuring Success of Constitutional Reforms. Evidence from Territorial Reforms in Eight Western Democracies. Regional and Federal Studies 21(4): 443–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz, Arthur, and Nathalie Behnke. 2009. The Politics of Constitutional Change between Reform and Evolution. Publius 39(2): 213–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz, Arthur, and Felix Knüpling (eds.). 2012. Changing Federal Constitutions. Lessons from International Comparison. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blokker, Paul. 2014. New Democracies in Crisis? A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bos, Ellen, and Kálmán Pócza (eds.). 2014. Verfassunggebung in konsolidierten Demokratien. Neubeginn oder Verfall eines politischen Systems? Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Busch, Andreas. 2006. Verfassungspolitik: Stabilität und permanentes Austarieren. In Regieren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Innen- und Außenpolitik seit 1949, ed. Manfred G. Schmidt, and Reimut Zohlnhöfer, 33–56. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carothers, Thomas. 2002. The End of the Transition Paradigm. Journal of Democracy 13(1): 5–21.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Contiades, Xenophon (ed.). 2013. Engineering Constitutional Change. A Comparative Perspective on Europe, Canada, and the USA. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dressel, Björn, and Marco Bünte. 2014. Constitutional Politics in Southeast Asia: From Contestation to Constitutionalism? Contemporary Southeast Asia 36(1): 1–22.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton. 2009. The Endurance of National Constitutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Elster, Jon. 1993. Constitution-Making in Eastern Europe: Rebuilding the Boat in the Open Sea. In Administrative Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Towards Public Sector Reform in Post-Communist Societies, ed. Joachim Jens Hesse, 169–217. Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg, Tom (ed.). 2012. Comparative Constitutional Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg, Tom, and James Melton. 2015. Does the Constitutional Amendment Rule Matter at All? Amendments Cultures and the Challenges of Measuring Amendment Difficulty”. International Journal of Constitutional Law 13(3): 686–713.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg, Tom, and Alberto Simpser (eds.). 2014. Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, Stephen, and Cass Sunstein. 1995. The Politics of Constitutional Revision in Eastern Europe. In Responding to Imperfection. The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment, ed. Sanford Levinson, 275–306. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson, Christer. 2016. Explaining constitutional change: Making sense of cross-national variation among European Union member states. Journal of European Public Policy 23(2): 255–275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitschelt, Herbert. 1994. Rationale Verfassungswahl? Zum Design von Regierungssystemen in neuen Konkurrenzdemokratien. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität.

    Google Scholar 

  • Köppl, Stefan. 2003. Italien: Transition ohne Reform? Gescheiterte Anläufe zur Verfassungsreform 1983–1998 im Vergleich. Stuttgart: ibidem.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, Astrid. 2005. How to Measure Constitutional Rigidity: Four Concepts and Two Alternatives. Journal of Theoretical Politics 17(3): 339–361.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, Astrid. 2008. Verfassungsänderungen in etablierten Demokratien. Motivlagen und Aushandlungsmuster. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, Astrid. 2011. Systemwechsel und Verfassungsentwicklung. In Regierungssysteme in Mittel- und Osteuropa: Die neuen EU-Staaten im Vergleich, ed. Florian Grotz and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel, 47–67 and 326–328. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz, Astrid, and Wenke Seemann. 2009. Verfassungspolitische Konjunkturzyklen? Überlegungen zur Wirkungsweise konstitutioneller Rigidität. Jahrbuch für Handlungs- und Entscheidungstheorie 5: 55–86.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Lutz, Donald S. 1995. Toward a Theory of Constitutional Amendment. In Responding to Imperfection. The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment, ed. Sanford Levinson, 237–274. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, James, and Kathleen Thelen. 2010. A Gradual Theory of Institutional Change. In Explaining Institutional Change. Ambiguity, Agency and Power, ed. idem, 1–37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merkel, Wolfgang. 2010. Systemtransformation. Eine Einführung in die Theorie und Empirie der Transformationsforschung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2nd ed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Negretto, Gabriel L. 2014. Making Constitutions: Presidents, Parties, and Institutional Choice in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolte, Detlef, and Almut Schilling-Vacaflor (eds.). 2012. New Constitutionalism in Latin America. Promises and Practices. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, Dawn, and Carlo Fusaro (eds.). 2011. How Constitutions Change. A Comparative Study. Oxford: Hart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersohn, Bettina. 2013. Konfliktregulierung in multinationalen Demokratien: Föderalismus und Verfassungsreformprozesse in Kanada und Belgien im Vergleich. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Qvortrup, Matt (ed.). 2013. The British Constitution. Continuity and Change. Oxford: Hart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasch, Bjørn Erik, and Roger D. Congleton. 2006. Amendment Procedures and Constitutional Stability. In Democratic Constitutional Design and Public Policy. Analysis and Evidence, ed. Roger D. Congleton and Birgitta Swedenborg, 319–342. Cambridge/Mass.: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Andrew. 2009. The Politics of Constitutional Amendment in Postcommunist Europe. Constitutional Political Economy 20(2): 99–117.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Roznai, Yaniv. 2013. Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments—The Migration and Success of a Constitutional Idea. American Journal of Comparative Law 61(3): 657–719.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Sadurski, Wojciech. 2012. Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Sartori, Giovanni. 1997. Comparative Constitutional Engineering. An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes. New York: New York University Press, 2nd ed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Topidi, Kyriaki, and Alexander H.E. Morawa (eds.). 2011. Constitutional Evolution in Central and Eastern Europe. Expansion and Integration in the EU. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tóth, Gábor Attila (ed.). 2012. Constitution for a Disunited Nation. On Hungary’s 2011 Fundamental Law. Budapest: CEU Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Blumenthal, Julia, and Stephan Bröchler (eds.). 2010. Föderalismusreform in Deutschland. Bilanz und Perspektiven im internationalen Vergleich. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Bogdandy, Armin, and Pál Sonnevend (eds.). 2015. Constitutional Crisis in the European Constitutional Area. Theory, Law and Politics in Hungary and Romania. Oxford, Portland: Hart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikipedia. 2015. Same-sex marriage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage (accessed December 31, 2015).

  • Yap, Po Jen. 2015. The Conundrum of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments. Global Constitutionalism 4(1): 114–136.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Anna Fruhstorfer & Michael Hein

Authors
  1. Anna Fruhstorfer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Hein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Hein .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Anna Fruhstorfer

  2. Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Hein

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fruhstorfer, A., Hein, M. (2016). Introduction. In: Fruhstorfer, A., Hein, M. (eds) Constitutional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13762-5_1

Download citation