THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

“HOUSE” OR “CEMETERY” OF DEMOCRACY?!

Abstract

In practice, the role and position of the political institutions
depend on the legal framework of their competencies, as well as on
many distinct characteristics of the holders of these institutions and
their relations. The “misbalance” between constitutional norms and
real role in the political system is especially visible in the analysis of
the position of the parliaments in contemporary democracies. The
obvious trend of executive domination over the present Parliament in
the reality of the political system shows that the constitutional norms
are only a framework for the legislative-executive relations and that
most of the constitutional competences of the Parliament are formal.
Parliaments have several functions: legislative, financial,
deliberative, critical, informative and representative.
These functions
can be summarized in three groups: representation, oversight and
legislation. Nevertheless, the importance of the parliaments is in what
parliamentary representatives mean, not what they do.