Special Institutional Solutions for Parliamentary Representation of National Minorities Cover Image

Solutii institutionale speciale pentru reprezentarea parlamentara a minoritatilor nationale
Special Institutional Solutions for Parliamentary Representation of National Minorities

Author(s): István Gergő Székely
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Electoral systems, Politics and society, Comparative politics, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: ISPMN Institutul pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale
Keywords: National minorities; Parliamentary representation; special parliamentary mandates for minorities;
Summary/Abstract: The paper reviews special electoral regulations designed to facilitate the parliamentary representation of national minorities in several countries. Several types of special measures are identified and two of them are addressed in detail: the exclusion of minority political parties from the electoral threshold and the reservation of special parliamentary mandates for minorities. The study contains information on electoral institutions in 16 countries, in five of them the electoral threshold is not applied to minorities, and in 11 there are reserved mandates. The approach of the subject is primarily from a formal institutional point of view, ie it is based on the analysis of the legislative documents as well as on secondary literature in the field, but within the limits of the possibilities is attempted a more substantial evaluation of the regulations, indicating the advantages and drawbacks of the systems in their functioning in practice.

  • Page Count: 41
  • Publication Year: 2008
  • Language: Romanian