The recall of MPs during the election period, as permitted by the Recall of MPs Act in the UK, is seen by some as a democratic correction mechanism. However, it can also be used as an instrument to weaken the opposition, as Danny Schindler's case study on Zimbabwe shows.
Traditionally, governments in France can rely on stable parliamentary majorities. Since 2022, however, a minority government has been steering the country's destiny. Damien Lecomte and Calixte Bloquet trace the institutional and political developments of the last 20 years to explain this phenomenon. Although this new political situation has placed parliament more at the centre of politics, it has not contributed to a stronger consensus orientation in the Assemblée nationale.
After the far-right Rassemblement National emerged as the clear winner of the election for the European Parliament on 9 June 2024, President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly. Anastasia Pyschny and Calixte Bloquet show that the outcome of the second round of voting has far-reaching consequences for the French political system.
The next Bundestag will be elected according to a new Bundestag electoral law, which has been confirmed in key points by the Federal Constitutional Court. Daniel Hellmann sheds light on what the Federal Constitutional Court has confirmed and what it has rejected in the second IParl Current Focus.
The state constitutions and the case law of the courts shape the work and norms of parliamentary work. Kevin Settles documents the parliamentary jurisprudence of the sixteen state constitutional courts between 2018 and 2023 and shows how the courts have adapted the law to new political realities such as the rise of the AfD and the coronavirus pandemic through judicial reviews, constitutional complaints and other proceedings.
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