The aim of this article is to present the system of state authorities in the Republic of Uzbekistan, shaped under the provisions of the existing fundamental law amended in 2014. We will also address the question whether the implemented reform of an institutional character means the adoption of a democratic form of government.

Institution of the assistant of the deputy in the Croatian constitutional law

Croatian parliamentary law predicts institution of assistant of a deputy. Article is sacrificed analysis of this institution and practice in using it. Regulations of the constitution, electoral regulations and rules of the parliament have been analysied. Especially procedure of election deputies and rules of the incompatibilitas parliamentary mandate. Parliamentary practice in Croatia suggest that the most often cause of suspension an election mandate is becoming a minister in the government.

Korupcja polityczna jest zjawiskiem mogącym wpływać na proces rozliczalności wertykalnej. Jej oddziaływanie jest związane z wpływem na 3 komponenty: informacyjny, ewaluacyjny i administracyjny. Rządzący na poziomie lokalnym mogą osłabiać efekty rozliczalności wertykalnej, wpływając na jej przebieg. W przypadku wystąpienia korupcji politycznej najskuteczniejszym sposobem przeciwdziałania efektywności rozliczalności wertykalnej jest instrumentalne kreowanie komponentu informacyjnego. Odbywa się ono poprzez asymetrię informacyjną i zarządzanie niepewnością komunikacyjną. W przypadku komponentu ewaluacyjnego mechanizm osłabiania rozliczalności zakłada odejście od modelu głosowania ekonomicznego na rzeczy aksjologicznego lub socjotropicznego. Relatywnie najsłabsze możliwości osłabiania procesu rozliczalności wertykalnej występują w przypadku komponentu administracyjnego i odwołują się do intencjonalnych zmian elementów systemu wyborczego.

Electoral engineering and electoral systems in relation to electoral law revisions

The analysis includes an attempt to represent various remarks associated with the electoral engineering, based on the experience of the Republic of Czech, where brand-new electoral system was adopted in the early 90s. Constitutional engineering was used at first as an instrument of analysis determining if modifications of the former electoral system are possible and how would various revisions influence performance of particular political party’s interests. The analysis led to a conclusion that there is no universal patent for electoral systems. There are no guarantees that the same regulation would function in the exact same manner as it does in the Republic of Czech and in the Republic of Poland, not even mentioning other countries located in different regions or continents. It is obvious that every country requires a sovereign decision in respect to the electoral system. Therefore, proposals of so called specialists suggesting taking over regulations following the British system (relative majority), Irish system (single transferable vote formula), or German system (personalisierte Verhältniswahl) should be recected. Rejection of the above-mentioned proposals stems from the fact that a particular electoral system will function differently in every country, depending on various circumstances.

Electoral system in multinational state. Analysis of the case of Spain

Multinationalism is one of the most important features of the Spanish state. After General Franco`s death in 1975 the nature of this political reality has induced the political elites to begin the process of construction of so-called regional state. The recognition of the principle of pluralism has binded members of the Spanish parliament to pass the electoral law which ensure that all territorial groups may have their representation in representative bodies in four levels of the political decision making process: European, national, regional and the local one. Thus, the main aim of this article is to present some basics of the legal solutions adopted in the Spanish electoral law, which in one hand allow to save the unitary state, but on the other hand ensure the respect of the ethnoregional minorities rights.

Electoral system in Bosnia and Herzegovina – critical outlook

The electoral law in Bosnia and Herzegovina differs significantly from commonly accepted standards operating in democratic state. During the parliamentary or presidential elections, the citizens who do not belong to one of constituent states (Bosnians, Serbs, Croats) are deprived of basic rights. The solutions established in 1995, and later only slightly modified, eventually caused the end of war but did not introduce fully democratic solutions. Even more surprising is the fact that the authors of constitutional order, including election law, are representatives of international community, mostly American lawyers. Unfortunately, in Bosnia and Herzegovina national communities, that are treated by the law as main entity of political life, are far more important than an ordinary citizen.

The issue of electoral system change in Westminster democracies:  New Zealand, Canada and United Kingdom. Comparative perspective

The article attempts to present the phased structure of electoral change in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. Together the comparison of the successful alteration of the first past the post formula in 1993 in New Zealand, the wave of electoral reforms in Canada that started in 2004 in British Columbia and the British referendum on 5th May 2011, allow to distinguish 8 phases of electoral system revision: injustice of the first part the post formula suffered by one of two main parties, leading to alteration initiatives; mobilisation of public opinion; withdrawal of the reform’s initiators from the process; loss of control by the initiators over the electoral change process; creation of the appropriate body responsible for the selection of the optimal voting formula; indication by the chosen body of the optimal alternative electoral formula to the first past the post for- mula; referendum; growth of support for the first past the post system.

The aim of this article is to assess the susceptibility of chosen components of Polish political system on centralized personalization of the election to the Sejm. The method applied in this process is the qualitative-quantitative content analysis. The construction of the tool that could objectively measure this influence in any democratic country poses an extremely difficult task. For this reason, the author proposed his own catalog of variables, based on the criterion of the relevance of their impact on the process of personalization. This list includes the following determinants: the position of Prime Minister, the electoral system, competencies and the manner of creating the position of the President, the financing of political parties and the role of the mass media. Out of the above-mentioned variables, especially the Prime Minister’s competences and the election system are the key factors that influence the level of centralized personalization, due to which they were graded higher in the assessment of susceptibility.

Rights of national minorities in the election law of the Croatian Sabor

The article is devoted to the election law in force in the Republic of Croatia, in particular to the provisions regulating the procedure for electing representatives of national minorities. In Croatia, the electoral system for the Sabor consists of three separate methods of selecting deputies. The first and fundamental one involves the election of 140 deputies in 10 constituencies. In each of the constituencies, 14 representatives are elected on the basis of a proportional system, using the d’Hondt method and the 5% electoral threshold applied to the constituency scale. The second is used in the election of three representatives of the Croatian diaspora. The constituency is the entire world, and the distribution of seats is also made proportionally using the d’Hondt method. The third, used in the election of 8 representatives of national minorities, is the majority system. The article analyzes the method of electing minority representatives and the consequences of applying this election procedure.

Celem artykułu było przedstawienie zagadnienia związanego z ograniczeniem liczby kadencji włodarzy w Polsce. Analizie poddano dane empiryczne, pochodzące z badań ankietowych, w których zapytano respondentów o to, czy opowiadali się za ograniczeniem możliwości sprawowania funkcji wójta, burmistrza oraz prezydenta miasta do dwóch kadencji. Zmiennymi, które wzięto pod uwagę, były: udział ankietowanych w wyborach samorządowych w 2018 roku, deklarowany udział w wyborach parlamentarnych, deklarowane poglądy, deklarowana religijność oraz wiek respondentów. Badania ankietowe zostały przeprowadzone w okresie od grudnia 2018 r. do lutego 2019 r. w ramach ogólnopolskiego projektu badawczego pt. „Preferencje polityczne. Postawy – identyfikacje – zachowania” realizowanego od 2009 r.

(Dis)proportionality of the Polish Local Elections

Studies on disproportionality of proportional electoral systems proves prove that district magnitude is a key variable determining deviations from proportionality in election results. This paper will shows how district magnitude affects electoral disproportionality by employing empirical data from Polish local elections in 2018. The analysis will prove that Polish “proportional” electoral system to local councils leads to highly disproportional results.

Changing the electoral systems as a research problem

The aim of the article is to review the main research issues related to the analysis of changes in electoral systems. Since the nineties of the twentieth century, the issue has become a popular research. Based on the literature review, attention was drawn to research on entities involved in changes to electoral systems, the motivations underlying these decisions, awareness of the political consequences of participants into the effects of changes in electoral systems, factors shaping electoral reform processes.

The Constitutional Principle of Proportionality in the Choice of the Size of the Constituency and the Method of Distributing Seats. Simulation of Changes in Parameters in the Elections to the Polish Sejm

The aim of this article is to, on the basis of the case study of Polish elections to the Sejm, answer the question of which factor has a greater impact on the increase in the proportionality of the electoral system - the minimization of the number of constituencies or the change in the method. In order to do it, the Authors specified the results of six elections to the Sejm in the years 2005-2019 and the value of the proportionality index in two simulation versions. In the first one, the number of constituencies was limited from 41 to 16. In the second, the method of determining the result was changed from D’Hondt into modified Sainte Lague. The results were relatively surprising.

Evolution of selected elements of the political system of the first and second republic of Lithuania

The roots of the Lithuanian political system precede the emergence of the modern Lithuanian state in 1918 by several decades. For over a hundred years before independence, Lithuania was an integrated part of the imperial tsarist Russia, and in 1940–1991, a union republic of the USSR. After regaining independence in 1991, while shaping the new political system, the Lithuanian political elite decided to refer to the systemic and institutional patterns from the short period of the functioning of democratic governments in the First Republic of Lithuania. The aim of the study is to analyze the evolution of the Lithuanian political system and the individual elements influencing its changes in the years 1920–1926 and 1990–2020. As a result, it was possible to demonstrate the similarities and differences in particular periods of the evolution of democracy, which was extremely helpful in indicating the directions of development of political systems and their individual elements.

Material Equality in Senate Elections

The article analyzes the issue of material equality in elections to the Senate. The electoral system in elections to the upper house of parliament in Poland radically violates the principle of material equality of elections. It is characterized by a large disproportion in the size of electoral districts in terms of the number of inhabitants in individual electoral districts. The current division into electoral districts, resulting from the annex to the Electoral Code, violates its provisions. It is also controversial from other points of view. It also raises the question of its compliance with the principle of a democratic state of law.

Current Limitations and Possible Ways to Increase the Level of Representativeness of Elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland

The problem of distortion of the representativeness of elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland is widely noticed. Now, the vote of the inhabitants of one constituency may weigh less that in another. The aim of this paper is to present de lege ferenda postulates to increase the level of representativeness of Sejm elections. The authors carry out a legal analysis and a classical systemic analysis, pointing out the deficiencies of the current electoral system and proposing solutions. There are research questions: (1) Does the current electoral system ensure that elections to the Sejm are truly representative? (2) Is it possible to ensure that elections to the Sejm are truly representative? The conclusions of the analysis show that the problem under study appears to be increasingly serious for the democracy and civil society, but there are legal solutions that can increase the level of representativeness of Sejm elections.

Why can’t it be done differently? Limited voter representation in provincial assemblies (sejmiki) in the period of 2014–2024

The problem of distorting the representativeness of elections to provincial assemblies in Poland is widely noted. The local government elections in 2024 confirm the indicated state of affairs. In many situations, the natural electoral threshold significantly exceeds the statutory threshold, and large groups of citizens do not have their representation in the sejmiks, while the largest groupings are overrepresented. The authors of this article set out to compare the number of voters without representation in provincial assemblies after the introduction of the Electoral Code, i.e. in the 2014, 2018 and 2024 local elections, despite having voted for groupings that exceeded the statutory electoral threshold. The authors, using institutional-legal analysis and classical systemic analysis, also propose a simple way to solve the pointed out significant problem for the representativeness of the elections, which is the abandonment of the division of provinces into smaller electoral districts.