Separation of Powers Dismantled? Over-Rationalisation of Parliamentarism During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic, Poland and France

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.21.2024.92.09

Keywords:

separation of powers, state of emergency, the executive, France, Poland, Czech Republic

Abstract

This article is intended as a contribution to the research into the increasing role of the executive in modern government systems, including the use of emergency measures. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we deal with an ongoing crisis of global significance. It is the prevalence of the coronavirus threat that provides a unique opportunity to make comparisons and formulate conclusions as to the newly diagnosed phenomenon of over-rationalized parliamentarism interpreted as an element of the ongoing strengthening of the executive power, and, at the same time, a potential serious threat to the already weakened separation of powers. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relative balance between powers – such balance being a structural element of the principle of separation of powers in a democratic state ruled by law – becomes (to a greater or lesser extent) disintegrated. The paper claims that irrespective of the formal response to COVID-19 (such as introducing a state of emergency in the Czech Republic, creating a new state of emergency in France and applying emergency measures without declaring a state of emergency in Poland), it appears that the extraordinary measures introduced are rather similar.

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Author Biographies

  • Ewa Bujwid-Kurek, Jagiellonian University, Poland

    Political scientist, Professor at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In her research work, she deals with the issues of contemporary political systems, with particular emphasis on the Central and South-Eastern Europe. She is the author of many publications, including several scientific monographs, m.in.: Legitymizacja ustroju polityczna państw poygosłowiańskich (Kraków 2019). She is also a co-author of academic textbook Transformation of the political system of selected countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe (Kraków 2015) and a monograph: III Rzeczpospolita Polska 1990-2016. Opinions-Dilemmas-Controversies (Kraków 2016) and Culture and Identities (Belgrade 2020). She translated Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from Serbian into Polish (Warsaw 2018).

  • Łukasz Jakubiak, Jagiellonian University, Poland

    A political scientist and legal scholar, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His research interests include French constitutionalism, political institutions of the Fifth Republic of France, constitutional law and party systems in former French colonies in Africa, as well as systems of government in a comparative perspective.

  • Arkadiusz Górnisiewicz, Jagiellonian University, Poland

    Political scientist, Professor at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His research interests include history of political thought, political philosophy, and the theories of modernity. His publications include two books in Polish (Nowoczesność, nihilizm, polityka; Wojna i nomos. Carl Schmitt o problemie porządku światowego) and three co-edited volumes in English: Modernity and What Has Been Lost. Considerations on the Legacy of Leo Strauss (2011); The Problem of Political Theology (2012); The Concept of Constitution in the History of Political Thought (2017). He has published in various journals, including History of European Ideas, Ratio Juris. An International Journal of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law, Journal of Political Ideologies.

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Published

09-12-2024

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How to Cite

“Separation of Powers Dismantled? Over-Rationalisation of Parliamentarism During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic, Poland and France”. 2024. Politeja 21 (5(92): 181-204. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.21.2024.92.09.

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