Próby modernizacji pozycji i funkcjonowania parlamentów w warunkach kryzysowych
Attempts at Modernization of Position and Workings of Parliaments During Crisis Conditions

Summary/Abstract: The 2007+ finacial crisis, which also had an impact on real economy, paradoxically resulted in an increase of states' activity in economy and in the growth of expectations of citizens towards states. The crisis makes them see the state as the only institution able to guarantee financial and social safety as well as orderly development of global economy in future. The article tries to answer the following question: is the state able to secure that feeling of safety and society's ability to develop, and will the incoming crises influence the modification of horizontal and vertical extent of functions of the modern state? The question whether modern states modernize or not, disregarding economic, social, cultural and military crises, is also a subject of preliminary analysis. The 2007+ economic crisis caused an increase in state activities in fields both related to economic problems and providing social and financial safety for citizens. The modernization of state institutions (the state conisdered as ontological being, i.e. is not identified with any present day state) is not related to crises. The internal institutions of state, as parliaments and executive are also modernized to a certain extent. The analyses of Scandinavian, US and Canadian parliaments included in the article prove that the parliaments use the legislative possibilities and increase the scope of control activities performed during crisis. Occasionally this leads to constitution infringement (US Congress). On other occasions special parliamentary commissions and direct democracy institutions are used (Iceland). During a crisis a phenomenon of "financial world imperialism" emerges. It is something more than financialization of real economy (industrial, services and agriculture). It is a trend leading to the subordination of all the other spheres of activity of states and societies, including politics, law and culture. It is observed in contemporary highly developed societies as well as in some countries of "peripheral capitalism". This trend is visible when democracy is used, including parliamentary procedures and decision-making processes in executive, to advance special interests of the financial world, its continuity and its profits.

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