Articles for tag: Demokratie, Mongolia, Parliamentary Democracy

Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Mongolia

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In May 2025, Mongolia witnessed peaceful youth-led protests in Sukhbaatar Square reacting to the Government’s handling of corruption and a perceived lack of transparency. The demonstration led to the Government’s resignation after a failed vote of confidence. Such governmental crises are not unprecedented in Mongolia, but the reaction to it is: the current political episode stands for an emerging constitutional culture in which civil society is reclaiming constitutional mechanisms for a more participatory and responsive democratic system.

28. Juli 2025

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The Limits of Limiting Democracy

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The intellectual and institutional architectures built around democracy are under pressure – and evolving: Germany reformed its fiscal constitution in March, Europe’s Stability and Growth Pact is undergoing a stress test, and in the United States, the White House is questioning the independence of monetary policy. Historically, democracy has an ambivalent reputation: Plato described it as both the freest and the most unstable of governments. But how far and in what ways can democracy be limited before it loses its democratic nature?

4. Juli 2025

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Addio, Rule of Law?

Fears are spreading that Italy, too, may be joining the club of EU Member States dismantling the rule of law. In this post, I will discuss three episodes that indeed lay bare a set of enduring constitutional tensions: the “Striano gate”; the “Paragon affair”; and the enactment of a Security Decree. While the actors involved are not the same in each story, the constitutional stakes are analogous: the proper use of coercive powers in a democracy and the traditional dichotomy between freedom and state authority. So, are we witnessing early signs of democratic regression?

22. Mai 2025

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There is one alternative

Die Urszene der parlamentarischen Obstruktion spielte sich am 31. Januar 1881 im britischen Unterhaus ab. Zur Debatte stand ein Zwangsgesetz (Coercion Bill), das es in Irland erlauben sollte, säumige Schuldner aus ihren Häusern zu vertreiben. Obwohl mehr als 150 Jahre alt, ist diese Episode bis heute überaus instruktiv für das Verständnis parlamentarischer Obstruktion. Im Fall systematischer parlamentarischer Obstruktion ist eine Majorisierung der Parlamentsregeln unabdinglich – andernfalls droht der Zusammenbruch der legislativen Demokratie.

30. Januar 2024

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Britain’s Political Meltdown and its Constitutional Dimension

Britain’s political meltdown is also a constitutional meltdown – a sign of the increasing redundancy of a remarkably resilient and successful constitutional model that has seen the UK avoid the constant process of revolution and renewal that plagued other European states, at least in the 20th century. The current state of the UK’s constitutional system is unsustainable and increasingly unable to support the primary purpose of government – to actually deliver policy.

22. Oktober 2022

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Schlecht gemeint

Unions-Fraktionschef Friedrich Merz möchte die Zustimmung seiner Fraktion zum 100 Milliarden-Sondervermögen der Bundeswehr davon abhängig machen, dass die Koalition geschlossen für diesen Vorschlag stimmt. Das klingt erstmal logisch. Wenn die größte Oppositionspartei der Regierungsmehrheit zu einer verfassungsändernden Mehrheit verhilft und somit etwas tut, dass aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach vor allem der Koalition hilft, dann kann sie im Gegenzug auch erwarten, dass deren Mehrheit steht und ihre Zustimmung an Bedingungen knüpfen. Oder? Aus demokratietheoretischer Sicht lautet die Antwort wie so häufig: jein.

23. März 2022

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