CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Dimulescu, Valentina Andreea |
|---|---|
| Title | The Institution of Presidential Impeachment in Semi-Presidential Systems. Case Study of Romania |
| Summary | The present paper examines the institution of presidential impeachment in countries displaying a semi-presidential institutional design. More specifically, it addresses the question whether the functioning of impeachment can be attributed to the particular institutional arrangement mirrored in the specific interactions between the institutional actors involved – the president, parliament and PM – or by non-institutional factors such as the president’s actions throughout his/her tenure which can be considered as having violated the constitutional text. The methodology used is the case study of the 2007 impeachment of Romanian president Traian Băsescu. Short references to the 1994 suspension case against Ion Iliescu are also tackled.The principal finding is that it is difficult to point to a clear, mono-causal relationship between the tensions inherent to semi-presidentialism and the practice of impeachment since the latter is not a common practice in countries that display features of a dual executive. The Romanian case points to a situation where the ambiguity of the constitutional text permitted the parliamentary majority to sanction the President on loose charges. Băsescu's self-proclaimed active involvement on the national political arena vexed his opponents in Parliament, but was declared as being in line with the constitutional provisions by the Romanian Constitutional Court. Moreover, the fact that Băsescu was reinstated after the dismissal referendum was seen as a vote of censure against the "322" parliamentarians who voted for his suspension. Nevertheless, the institutional tug of war continued between the President, PM and Parliament because the Romanian Constitution does not provide for a reliable mechanism to resolve such constitutional conflicts. |
| Supervisor | Dimitrijevic, Nenad Milos |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/dimulescu_valentina.pdf |
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