How Does the Principle of ?consensus␙ Manifest Itself in the Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany (frg)?Essay title: How Does the Principle of ?consensus␙ Manifest Itself in the Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany (frg)?How does the principle of �consensus’ manifest itself in the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)?In Arend Lijpharts Patterns of Democracy (1999, 34), he describes the �consensus’ model of democracy as a model that tries to share, disperse, and restrain power as opposed to the Westminster-style majoritarian model, which aims to concentrate power in the hands of the majority. This essay will analyse the Federal Republic of Germany and aim to show to what extent the principle of �consensus’ is manifested in its political system, focusing on the constitution, electoral system, Federalism and the legislative.
Constitutional rigidity and strong judicial review are two elements of the principle of �consensus’ and both of these are manifested in the FRG’s political system (Lijphart, 1999, 40-41). The FRG’s �Basic Law’, named as such in order to emphasize the provisional and transitional character of the West German state after World War Two, can be described as a constitutional democratic theory mainly of European and American traditions, creating a human-rights based democracy underpinned by a high degree of power sharing, separation of powers, a competitive party system, the rule of law, federalism, the commitment to social policy and the openness of the constitution to the delegation of sovereignty to international and
ancillary entities. The FRG’s political system is one in which the law and justice of the state are enshrined in an organic and harmonious unity, a shared political life, democratic principles, social justice, legal fairness, self-management and the right of the individual to self-determination, freedom of assembly and the rights to choose and share their own lives (Lijphart 2001, 71).
In an era when the United States is the world’s leader in developing democratic systems, the FRG’s basic law system (in particular the legal system in Sweden and the Russian Federation) has always been based on a common and self-evident principle of the rule of law, free and fair elections, legal representation and the democratic process. The Russian Federation is a relatively free-standing democracy and the FRG’s basic law system is a strong constitutional principle that is underpinned by a strong and strong national identity. The European and American regimes have set up a constitutional system that was, by law, designed to enforce their own sovereign sovereignty, but in practice has been largely dominated by European States.
The concept of the FRG’s constitutional democratic rule of law is based on parliamentary, state, administrative and parliamentary sovereignty. In modern Russia, the FRG’s Basic Law is thus a hybrid of parliamentary, state and administrative law. While parliamentary and state legislative bodies carry out some basic constitutional and procedural functions, neither the executive nor the judiciary perform substantive functions (Lijphart 2001). Instead the judiciary works in opposition to the legislative- and judicial-legislative institutions, but is free to issue decrees and provide other legal advice and guidance (Lijphart 2001).
The basic law has been elaborated in three general ways: by parliamentary and state and by administrative law. Both provide for a full, consistent parliamentary or judicial system and in the case of the Russian Federation the parliamentary and administrative systems are based on the framework of the Constitution. Unlike the constitutional republics, which have largely been developed through referendums, the fundamental principles of democracy that govern the country are closely co-extensive with the basic law.
Political parties
Political parties in the Russian Federation generally represent the majority of parties in the political system except for the main ones. The general rule is that the government is always democratic but its laws are passed through the national parliament (Tinanov 1998). Thus, in Soviet Russia, all civil and criminal prosecutions are conducted by state and parliamentary bodies. Thus, the law is usually followed by a national parliament, usually on a national day, for all prosecutions in case the criminal act is declared to be illegal, the government is obliged to respond promptly to requests from the public,