Executive-Legislative relations in Post-Communist Europe
There are two main methods for appointing the executive, the one used in parliamentary systems, the other one in presidential systems. According to the parliamentary method the people first elects the legislature, which, in turn, appoints the executive. In a pure parliamentary system the executive, furthermore, can remain in office only as long as it enjoys the support, or confidence, of a majority in the legislature. This requirement is often referred to as the parliamentary principle. According to the presidential method separate popular elections are held for appointing a president and, thereby, the rest of the executive. In a presidential country, there are thus two main types of popular elections, those for electing the executive and those for electing the legislature.
As for methods for appointing the members of the legislature there are, again, essentially two types of methods. First there are the majoritarian methods using single-member constituencies and giving, in each constituency, the mandate to the candidate who, according to some set of rules, gets most votes. Second there are the proportional methods, which use multi-member constituencies and distribute the mandates to the parties in proportion to their votes.
Now, by combining the methods for appointing the executive, and the legislators, we get the following four types of constitutions.
Parliamentary constitutions with proportional elections.
Parliamentary constitutions with majoritarian elections.
Presidential constitutions with proportional elections.
Presidential constitutions with majoritarian elections.
The former communist countries shared the same type of economic system before the collapse of communism. Communism rule in Eastern and Central Europe, Mongolia, and the former Soviet Union ended around the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. Governments in these countries abandoned communist policies and initiated economic reforms. The scope of the reforms and decline of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have varied significantly among post-communist countries. The economic reforms have been deeper and more comprehensive and economic decline less severe in Central European countries than in the former Soviet Republics, with the exception of the Baltic States.
All communist countries attempted to implement industrialization, collectivization, and mass education policies and institute the state control over the economy in the form of central planning and the state ownership of enterprises (Kornai, 1992). Communist economic planning involved both micro and macro levels. The communist state controlled output, prices, and wages of enterprises and individuals. Economic planning on the macro level included macroeconomic aggregates, such as national income, aggregate wages,...
Also unlike the president, it is entitled to be part of the political party. This is an important aspect because its adherence to the party ensures its support for the political figure and for the measures to be taken throughout the mandate. This enables the administration to avoid potential situations when political support lacks. Political accountability rests in the power of the Parliament to hold accountable the Government. In this
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