The status and the role of parliamentary opposition in the German Bundestag – chosen issues

The article concerns chosen issues of the institution of the parliamentary opposition in the German parliamentary system. The parliamentary opposition in the German system of governments is a universally accepted phenomenon. Many factors affect its status and the position, from the structure of internal organs and the way of creating them, for specific institutions of the parliamentary law allowing for active participating in the realization of basic functions of the Bundestag. A President of the Bundestag, a Presidium, Advice of Seniors and committees are internal organs of the German Bundestag. The manner of the casting of individual organs, their tasks and the way of proceeding (especially Advice of Seniors) enable opposition groupings in the real way to influence functioning of the Chamber. In the process, in spite of the lack of the legal institutionalization of the phenomenon of the opposition on the federal level, it is possible to tell about political recognizing laws to the parliamentary opposition in Germany.

Functioning of the parliamentary opposition during the period of the Constitution of 1921 and 1997 – selected issues

This article is a jubilee text, intended to celebrate the centenary of the adoption and entry into force of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1921. The author discusses the issues of the functioning of the parliamentary opposition in two historical periods of the 2nd and 3rd Republic of Poland, analyzing legal regulations and political mechanisms. Due to the limited volume framework of this study, this analysis has been limited to some issues only. Their selection was primarily determined by the similarities in the sphere of normative and political phenomena that can be noticed in both epochs. Hence, the article includes topics related to: the legal basis and the normative concept of the functioning of the parliamentary opposition, the impact of the parliamentary opposition on the appointment of positions in the internal organizational apparatus of the Sejm, relations between the parliamentary opposition and the Marshal of the Sejm, the levels of rivalry and cooperation between the parliamentary opposition and the ruling camp. The author’s argument leads to a bitter reflection that the existing parliamentary system has still not freed itself from the ballast of the past and is far from a system adhering to the developed standards of protection of the rights of the opposition that exist in modern countries.

The objective of this article is to establish the main goal the leaders of the parliamentary opposition wanted to achieve in the negotiations with the government during the Euromaidan. In this study, the following methods were applied: the historical method, data analysis, and case study. In the conclusion, it is noted that the main task of the parliamentary opposition in the negotiations with the government was to restore the Constitution of 2004, which limited the presidential competences in executive power and extended

The aim of this article is to define the role of the organisations established by the parliamentary opposition during the Euromaidan. The political opposition created the National Resistance Headquarters and the All-Ukrainian Union “Maidan” at that time. In the long term, they were supposed to become a tool for the opposition in the upcoming presidential elections. In the short term, in turn, they were to coordinate the actions of protesters during the Euromaidan throughout Ukraine. In order to achieve the research objective, the historical, systemic, and case study methods were used.