We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Die Grundstrukturen der kirgisischen Verfassung und ihre Bedeutung für Dezentralisierung und Selbstverwaltung.
- Authors
Scholler, Heinrich
- Abstract
Since about ten years, Kyrgyzstan has started to develop an independent political system based on the constitution from May 1993. This constitution was oriented on Western ideals and models and gave a specific importance to decentralisation of the political power and to local autonomy. It's of importance that the Kyrgyz parliament (Dschogorku Kenesch) was for the first time in the Kyrgyz history freely elected. Kyrgyzstan has a federal structure, in so far as seven regions (Oblast) were established. Kyrgyzstan is the first country of Central-Asia which has organized democratic elections on the level of local autonomy. The result of the democratic realization of local power was naturally the stronger participation of the population in public affairs and the not expected or wanted demand of more democratic participation in all state activities. It is remarkable that the constitution itself has an own section, in which detailed rules on local autonomy are formulated. The article tries to compare the extent of rules concerning local autonomy in the Kyrgyz constitution with the sections or single guarantees with regard to local government on European countries. It is obvious, that the number of formulated constitutional rules increases in those countries which have changed to a democratic system and vertical decentralisation after longer periods of centralized and undemocratic government. With regard to the guarantee of local autonomy, it might be questionable whether the guarantee can be considered to be a fundamental political right which can be brought to court or whether it's more a kind of political structure. A second problem could be the technique or theory that also other ordinary laws, which are established to realize local autonomy, participate in the constitutional quality of the institutional guarantee (article 91 to 95). Therefore, the property in the hand of local authorities is protected by the general guarantee of property, which is effective and valid not only in favour of the citizen or the foreigner but also for the local autonomy organization. On the other hand, human rights granted by the constitution are also granted with regard to local government, especially if it has to full fill duties and powers transferred from the state government to the local authorities There are some other issues, which might be interpreted in favour of strengthening local autonomy, because they are granting vertical separation of powers. Also the representation of decentralized administrative organizations in the second chamber of parliament is strengthening the local authority. The constitution also grants the local authority, the competence and function of organizing, tax imposing, planning and competence of personal management. It is also interesting to see that the lower state authorities and the local authorities are working on the same level, however the state's local authority has the competence of controlling The new Constitution and its new system of power-sharing were introduced in order to grant and develop more stability especially by decentralisation and local autonomy. It is getting more and more doubtful whether this Western model can achieve this aim, because the traditional system of power and the slow implantation of decentralisation makes it difficult to overcome the existing weakness, the growing tension in a society with difficult neighbours outside and growing tensions inside.
- Subjects
KYRGYZSTAN; DECENTRALIZATION in government; DEMOCRATIZATION; POLITICAL autonomy; KYRGYZSTAN politics &; government
- Publication
Law & Politics in Africa, Asia & Latin America / Verfassung und Recht in Übersee (VRÜ), 2008, Vol 41, Issue 2, p131
- ISSN
0506-7286
- Publication type
Article