Constitutional Changes and Proposals for Constitutional Changes in the Czech Republic after the Crisis in 2008
Abstract
The paper examines the impact of the 2008 global economic crisis on constitutional developments in the Czech Republic. When analysing the issue, the author suggests not only monitoring the temporal coincidence of the submitted draft constitutional acts with the events known as the financial crisis, but also their direct substantive links with them.
In essence, a temporal link is an insufficient criterion; what should be critical is whether, or not, a causal link based upon a material aspect exists with regard to each specific example. From this viewpoint, the author suggests dividing proposals for constitutional changes in the Czech Republic into four categories: proposals where no substantive links may be demonstrated; proposals where such causal links may exist, but are not certain; proposals where the existence of a causal link is highly probable; and those where such links are apparent.
The article seeks to explain the Czech constitutional context and the very pro-active approach on the part of politicians to the text of the Constitution and proposals for its amendments, which are however seldom signed into law. The author meticulously justifies the assignment of the drafts into the aforementioned categories and at the same time reaches a general conclusion that the financial crisis did not lead to constitutional developments in the Czech Republic that could be regarded as qualitatively novel.
On the other hand, the Czech Republic is undergoing a process (independent of the financial crisis) of the erosion of the political system and the system of political parties associated with a certain amount of public distrust in the traditional system of constitutional and political representations, with the emergence of requirements calling for the strengthening of elements of direct democracy and with the rise of new entities, often self-proclaiming their being non-political and gaining more support.