Parlamentarismus im europäischen Mehrebenensystem - Niedergang, Renaissance, oder beides?/Parliamentarism in the EU multi-level system - decline, renaissance, or both?

• Published in: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 2016-04, Vol.26 (1), p.165
• Main Author: Abels, Gabriele
• Format: Article
• Language: ger
• Subjects: Executive-legislative relations; Legitimacy; Parliamentary systems; Political institutions; Representative democracy; Sovereignty
• ISSN: 1430-6387

Parliaments embody the idea of popular sovereignty and they are key political institutions in representative democracies. However, parliamentarism today faces many challenges; the ability of parliaments to fulfil their ascribed core function is restricted or severely restrained. Especially European governance has profound effects on national parliaments and the developments of legislative-executive relations. This contribution argues that the ubiquitous, general claim of a decline of parliaments cannot be sustained and needs to be differentiated in the light of recent research. There is strong empirical evidence that especially the Lisbon Treaty has triggered developments at various parliamentary levels which lead to extensive functional changes. These changes are characterized by concurrent processes of de- and re-parliamentarization. Furthermore, against the background of stronger participation rights of national parliaments the focus needs to shift towards the strengthening of legislative power in general in order to ensure parliamentary democratic legitimacy in the future. For this purpose the concept of multi-level parliamentarism is helpful.