Controversies About Croatian Parliamentarism Cover Image

Prijepori oko hrvatskog parlamentarizma
Controversies About Croatian Parliamentarism

Author(s): Smiljko Sokol
Subject(s): Politics, Political history, Government/Political systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Fakultet političkih znanosti u Zagrebu
Keywords: Croatia; government; parliamentarism; controversies;

Summary/Abstract: The author considers basic controversies surrounding the constitutional model and reality of Croatian parliamentarism. He contends that all these issues can be summarized in one debatable question: is it a fair assessment that the Croatian political system and Croatian parliamentarism are marred by the concentration of power wielded by the upper echelon of the Government, especially the President of the Republic, while the Parliament is powerless and marginalized. The author challenges this assumption by systematically dividing basic characteristics of parliamentary governments and semi-presidential systems into specific examples of both foreign policy and majority and consensus decision-making; while emphasizing the influence of the party system upon constitutional government. He believes that a change from a semi-presidential system to a purely parliamentary system would not significantly affect the relationship between the law-making and executive portions of government.

  • Issue Year: XXX/1993
  • Issue No: 04
  • Page Range: 24-39
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Croatian