Responsibility of Members of the Federal Government in Belgium

The article is devoted to the responsibility of members of the Federal Government in Belgium. The main part of the study concerns the mechanisms of political responsibility. They include individual responsibility of ministers and collective responsibility of the cabinet. According to the original version of the Belgian Constitution of 1831 ministers were responsible to the king. Currently, the House of Representatives is authorized to enforce the individual responsibility of the minister by passing a vote of no confidence. In such situation the king is obliged to dismiss the minister. The entire cabinet may be the addressee of the motion of no confidence, too (collective responsibility). Since 1993 there has been the possibility of overthrowing the government through a constructive vote of no confidence. The article also discusses the problem of legal responsibility of ministers.

Individual Political Responsibility of the Cabinet Minister in Political Practice under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland from 2nd April 1997

According to the Constitution of Poland from 2nd April 1997, a cabinet minister is political responsible for the political direction of his office to the Sejm and to the Prime Minister. The main goal of this paper is to show, that in practice, the political responsibility of the ministers before the Sejm is illusory. The majority of the vote required to adopt a motion of no confidence is so high that its vote is only possible in exceptional circumstances. Since 1997, no motion of no confidence have been successful, so the Sejm has never succeeded in enforcing the resignation of a minister. That is why, only the political responsibility of the minister before the Prime Minister has a real meaning. The head of government can lead to the dismissal of each minister at any time. When deciding to file an application to dismiss a minister, the Prime Minister must take into account only whether such a decision does not endanger the political support of the majority of the Sejm.

Some remarks about formal requirements of the motion of no confidence to a cabinet minister

According to the Constitution of Poland from 2nd April 1997, a cabinet minister is political responsible to the Sejm and to the Prime Minister. The Sejm has power to lead to the dismissal of each minister by passing a motion of no confidence. The main goal of this paper is to show the formal requirements of an motion of no confidence to a single minister, and to answer questions: what are the reasons explaining to submit this kind of motion and when member of parliament have a right to demand a dismissal of a cabinet minister. In this paper it is shown the results of an analysis of motions of no confidence to a cabinet minister from 1997 to 2015.

Activity of Parliamentary Opposition Deputies on the Example of No-confidence Motions (VI-IX Term of the Polish Sejm)

The article presents the terms of the Sejm in which the parliamentary opposition demanded that the Sejm express a vote of no confidence in members of the Council of Ministers. The authors of the study focused on presenting the parliamentary practice from the sixth to the ninth terms of the Sejm related to the number of motions for a vote of no confidence submitted, rather than on their substantive analysis. The examples of allegations included in the justifications for the motions, indicated in the study, concerned the ministers against whom the largest number of motions for a vote of no confidence were directed in a given term of the Sejm. The purpose of the article is to answer the question: in which term of the Sejm did the parliamentary opposition actively use the vote of no confidence against ministers, demonstrating the mistakes they made and demanding their dismissal?