Abstract
This chapter analyzes constitutional politics in 20 post-socialist Central and Eastern European states from their first constitution-making after 1989 until 2014. After a description of general patterns regarding similar topics and contents of constitutional amendments, the chapter critically reassesses the approaches and hypotheses that have been developed in the quantitative strand of constitutional politics research so far. These approaches are only partly able to explain the variation in the frequency of amendments and the success and failure of amendment initiatives. Finally, the chapter summarizes the findings of this volume regarding three leading research topics: the democracy-autocracy divide, the influence of external factors, and the applicability of the transition paradigm.
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Notes
- 1.
All references to individual countries refer to the respective country chapters in this volume.
- 2.
We are very much indebted to the authors of the country studies, who provided us with all data used in this chapter, particularly for the statistical analyses in Sects. 3 and 4. The dataset is available upon request. Furthermore, we would like to thank the participants of Silvia von Steinsdorff’s research colloquium for their manifold comments and helpful suggestions on this chapter, and Diana Elena Burlacu for her help with and the feedback on the data analysis.
- 3.
In Bulgaria the EU successfully enforced judicial reform steps on the constitutional level even after Bulgaria’s EU entry in 2007 by means of the so-called ‘Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’.
- 4.
Additionally, in Latvia, Montenegro, Poland and Slovenia several amendment attempts regarding parliamentary immunity—whether to expand or restrict it—failed. For an assessment of the EU’s influence on the accession countries, see Sect. 5.2.
- 5.
Additionally, in Moldova, two attempts to restrict parliamentary immunity failed.
- 6.
Five countries (Albania, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, and Serbia) have already enacted a second constitution after 1989, and the 2003 reform of the Romanian constitution changed the amendment procedure.
- 7.
For the amended articles rate no data were available for Albania (1991 constitution). In general, we have counted only the articles and the preambles, but not the transitional and final provisions of the constitutions. The only exception to this rule was the fourth amendment to Hungary’s 2012 Basic Law in 2013, since the 21 new closing provisions added by this amendment substantially altered the constitution’s content.
- 8.
Lorenz (2011, 61f.) demonstrated such a relationship in her study on the post-socialist EU member states (9.6 vs. 4.8 years). For our universe of cases, we find similar values (9.3 vs. 5.5 years).
- 9.
Since the hypothesis is about the immediate situation after the breakdown of the socialist regime, the data include only the first post-socialist constitutions (except Albania 1991, for which no data on amended articles is available).
- 10.
The data include all regular amendments for the first non-interim post-socialist constitution per country (i.e. for the countries with already two new constitutions after 1989, these are Albania 1998, Hungary 1990, Montenegro 1992, Poland 1997, and Serbia 1990).
- 11.
Additionally, both Serbian constitutions (1990 and 2006) were never amended, but if we would take the 2006 constitution-making into account, the common amendment articles rate for Serbia from 1990 to 2014 adds up to 8.24.
- 12.
In Russia, also the federation subjects can initiate constitutional amendments, and there have been nine successful and no single failed proposal from 1993 until 2014. Since Russia is the only country where federal subunits have this right, they are not included in this analysis.
- 13.
The only exceptions are Belarus and Croatia (the latter since 2000), whose constitutions allow for amendments by means of a referendum.
- 14.
For Albania (both 1991 and 1998), Macedonia and Moldova data on failed amendment initiatives are missing. The data on Estonia and Hungary include only amendment initiatives since 1994. Whereas the data on successful amendments are complete (with the aforementioned restrictions), there might be individual gaps concerning the unsuccessful initiatives due to missing information in the official parliamentary databases and other sources. However, we can assume that there is no systematic data error.
- 15.
It remains to be seen, whether the latest developments in Poland starting in late 2015 are only a short episode or the beginning of a similar pathway.
- 16.
Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary (1990 constitution), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (1997 constitution), Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
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Fruhstorfer, A., Hein, M. (2016). From Post-socialist Transition to the Reform of Political Systems?. 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_22
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