Fundamentals of Law and Government

Transcription

1 Fundamentals of Law and Government Democratic state ruled by law. Representative democracy vs. direct democracy. Fundamentals of Law and Government BBA I, winter semester 2017/2018

2 Democratic state ruled by law In a formal sense: the whole activity of the state and its organs is based on the law (principle of legality) and on the principle of separation of powers and their mutual control. It is accompanied by the fact that the executive and judicial branches act under statues, the judicial control of the activities of the executive, the admissibility of state interference in the sphere of individual rights only under the law. Such a view of the state ruled by law is viewed primarily by the organizational and procedural principles.

3 In a material sense: the activities of the state and its organs are based on the following ideas and values: justice, including social justice and the assistance of people in bad circumstances, freedom, which is the source of the constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms, equality of all citizens, democracy, including making universal elections the primary way of creating the bodies that constitute the law and other supreme state organs, as well as guaranteeing political pluralism.

4 Principles characterizing the state ruled by law: the principle of sovereignty of the nation, the principle of freedom and equality before the law, the principle of constitutionalism, the principle of separation of powers, the principle of legality, the right to a court, the principle of the State's liability for misconduct,

5 the prohibition of State action beyond necessity, the existence of a system of self-government institutions.

6 The principle of the democratic state ruled by law in the case-law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal the principle of protecting human life at every stage of development, the principle of trusting citizens to the state, the principle of protection of acquired rights, the principle of non-retroactivity (non-retroactivity law), the principle of sufficient specificity,

7 prohibition of the setting of normative acts incompatible with higher normative norms and the order to act only within the limits of the law of specific competence, the principle of adherence to the statutory procedure of adoption of statutes, the principle of the presumption of innocence, the principle of proportionality, the rule of the so-called decent legislation, the principle of the rule of law.

8 Representative democracy the principle of elected officials, representing a group of people

9 Elections universal, equal, direct, proportional, conducted by secret ballot.

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11 Direct democracy people decide policy initiatives directly

12 Direct democracy referendum, plebiscite, citizens' veto, citizens' legislative initiative, citizens' consultation, people's assembly.

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14 LITERATURE Essentials: Rosenfeld Michel, Sajó András, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law, 2012 Extra: Banaszak Bogusław (edit), Constitutional Law in Poland, 2012 Banaszak Bogusław, Outline of Polish Constitutional Law, 2005 Bodnar Adam, Frankowski Stanisław, Introduction to Polish Law, 2005 Lijphart Arend, Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, 2010 Lewis James R., The Human Rights Encyclopedia, 1999 Mandelbaum Michael, Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government, 2007