Title

How Patriotic Can the Opposition Be? The Constitutional Role of the Minority Party in Times of Peace and during National Crises

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the constitutional status of the minority party – the opposition – within the parliament and its interaction with the majority. It does so from both a political science and law perspective, and focuses on the different types of oppositions in various regimes and their interactions with the majority. It quests to the limits and scope of oppositional behavior within parliaments. The paper focuses especially on the role of the opposition during times of national crises and analyses the constitutional problem of opposition loyalty to the majority in these times while suggesting a model that limits the opposition loyalty, especially in times of national crises.

Disciplines

Constitutional Law

Date of this Version

February 2004