Institutional Opportunities of the Parliamentary Opposition in Slovakia: Useless Tools or Powerful Weapons?
Institutional Opportunities of the Parliamentary Opposition in Slovakia: Useless Tools or Powerful Weapons?

Summary/Abstract: The only actor capable of restraining the government from directly within the parliament is the parliamentary opposition. In the case of the Slovak parliament, the opposition is not formally institutionalized, but it definitely has the capacity to become so. However, in Slovakia governments usually enjoy the majority in parliament. Thus, the restraining possibilities of the parliamentary opposition are limited. Nevertheless, this influence is not unimportant. This paper analyzes all the institutional opportunities of the opposition in the National Council of the Slovak Republic in the period 1994–2012. It focuses on the following institutional factors: capability of the opposition to influence the approval of any bill; amendments of Rules of Procedure; selection of parliamentary offices; confidence and no-confidence votes; parliamentary questions and interpellations; constitutional review, and referendum.

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