A Study On Constitutionalism Crisis

Crisis is a very common but important phenomenon in constitutionalism history of the world. Ever since the practice of constitutionalism came into existence, constitutionalism crisis has always been taking place and never stops till today, whether the country concerned is advanced with a long history of constitutionalism or a mature constitutional civilization.Constitutionalism crisis may be brought about by chance or inevitably, but the crisis can be resolved and prevented by taking certain measures. Constitutionalism crisis possesses important cognitive value, as a result of its historical value, current occurance, university and regularity. Therefore, the study on constitutionalism crisis is the basis on which the history and law of constitutionalism is to be researched. However, relevant researches on the history and theory of constitutionalism generally summarize the experience of constitutional construction, discuss the conditions under which constitutionalism is fostered and developed, but specific and in-depth study on constitutionalism crisis has been relatively rare. Based on the achievements of relevant research fields, this thesis tries to make a preliminary study of the basic issues concerning constitutionalism crisis with expectation that this issue will be paid more attention to.In addition to the introduction and conclusion parts, this thesis is divided into six parts.The first part, Constitutionalism and Constitutionalism Crisis, analyses and defines the concept of constitutionalism, crisis and constitutionalism crisis respectively; then discusses in detail the main criteria in deciding whether there exists constitutionalism in a given country or it is regarded as a country with constitutionalism. Without constitutionalism, there will be no constitutionalism crisis, so the study on constitutionalism crisis begins with these two questions: What is constitutionalism, and what are the criteria in deciding whether there exists constitutionalism in a given country. This thesis holds that constitutionalism is a political idea as well as political system and formulation, which takes a good constitution as its precondition, centers on democracy, bases itself on legal system and aims to safeguard human rights.For a nation to be a constitutionalist one, several requirements must be met: First, there is a good constitution embodying the spirit of constitutionalism and the basic principles of constitution; Second, freedom of citizens is effectively safeguarded; Third, there is a free market economy foundation and system; Fourth, regular democracymechanism can be ensured; Fifth, supervision over public opinion is both free and regular. Crisis in general refers to certain emergent situations under which social order is facing severe threat as a result of sudden events, emergency or social conflicts. While constitutionalism crisis refers to such emergent situations under which constitutional system, constitutional rights and constitutional order are severely threatened due to constitutional conflicts or constitutional disputes aroused in the course of its implementation.The second part, Constitution and Characteristics of Constitutionalism Crisis, mainly analyses the components and characteristics of constitutionalism crisis; compares the notion of constitutionalism crisis with other relevant conceptions, such as constitutional crisis, political crisis, coup and emergency. This thesis takes the view that constitutionalism conflict is the basic element of constitutionalism crisis, and there is no constitutionalism crisis without constitutionalism conflict. Constitutionalism conflict is the acute struggle between competing political groups or social groups in pursuit of either constitutional resources or constitutional proposition. Constitutionalism conflict is the basic element of constitutionalism crisis but not the only one. Constitutionalism conflict cannot give rise to constitutionalism crisis until such conflict threatens in an effective way the current constitutionalism system, constitutional power and constitutional order. In addition, the realistic danger of constitutionalism is one of the elements of constitutionalism crisis, and constitutionalism dispute is one of the causes involved under certain circumstances.Constitutionalism crisis has its own features as well as common characters shared with general crisis, such as suddenness, uncertainty, destructiveness and urgency. First, constitutionalism crisis manifests itself in political conflict, which is an evident character of the former. Second, the specialty of constitutionalism crisis is demonstrated in relation to constitution. Parties involved in political conflict leading to constitutionalism crisis focus on constitutional power, constitutional principles and constitutional system, which is different from general political crisis. Third, constitutionalism crisis can affect society as a whole and cause confrontations among social groups.The third part, Types of Constitutionalism Crisis, examines two classifications of constitutionalism crisis on the basis of the explanation of perspectives and criteria for classification. On one hand, constitutionalism crisis can be divided into system crisis, power crisis and sovereignty crisis according to its characters. System crisis refers to the situation under which the system and rules of constitutionalism are destroyed; political activities and constitutionalism order are in trouble; Power crisis refers to the situation under which the state powers endowed by constitution cannot be effectively executed andmay be suspended or deprived, thus causing serious political conflict and social confrontation; While under sovereignty crisis, state sovereignty and territory integrity are threatened due to splitting activities of ethnic or regional groups. On the other hand, constitutionalism crisis can be divided into internal crisis, external crisis and mixed crisis in consideration of its causes. The internal crisis is aroused by underdevelopedness in constitutionalism system and rules or the political conflict within constitutionalism system; For external crisis which is caused by outside forces, constitutionalism system and rules are deformed or cannot operate properly; While the mixed crisis is caused by the interaction of elements both within and outside the framework of constitutionalism systemThe fourth part, the analysis of causes of constitutionalism crisis, explores in-depth the reasons of constitutionalism crisis from the political, economic and social perspectives respectively. The political reasons include the deficiency of constitutionalism, imbalance of state power, state power corruption, struggle among political groups and so on; The economic reasons include the eruption of economic crisis, backward national economy, scarce social resources and poor living with mass employment, contradiction of economy structure and market disorder, ineffective state regulation, uneven distribution of wealth, and polarization between the rich and the poor; The social reasons include the division of social unity system, social and national split caused by regional, ethnical and religion separation activities, slow social development, expansion of government power without control and the imbalance of constitutionalism system.The fifth part, the resolution of constitutionalism crisis, deals with decision-making and resolution of constitutionalism crisis, and the after-crisis issue is discussed briefly.The resolution of crisis is based on crisis decision-making. Compared with regular crisis, general crisis is instant, ever changing and irregular. Constitutionalism crisis decision-making is different from general crisis in either decision-making subject or entity, or objective and effect. Constitutionalism crisis has two additional characters, which make it different from the pattern of general crisis. In general, constitutionalism crisis decision-making is a kind of dynamic and interactive pattern, which includes two methods, the obscure method and the dynamic method. In practice, there are four ways in resolving constitutionalism crisis: reaching compromise between conflicting parties; bringing constitutional litigation; appealing to public opinion through referendum; taking urgent measures or using force. Different ways leads to different results.There are two types of measures to be taken after the constitutionalism crisis has been resolved. First, if the constitutionalism crisis is resolved by taking emergentmeasures, the primary work to be done after crisis is to lift the measures taken, get constitutionalism order reconstructed, and in particular safeguard the rights and freedom of citizens; Second, when the constitutionalism crisis is resolved by way of compromise between parties, constitutional litigation or referendum, the parties concerned should commit themselves to get rid of the damages and negative effect, and resume the trust of citizens for government and political order.The sixth part, the prevention of constitutionalism crisis, expounds how to prevent constitutionalism crisis during the course of the constitutionalism construction from five perspectives: First, building up and maintaining constitution authority; maintaining the supremacy of constitution in the legal system and the good aspects of constitution; fostering the constitutional consciousness of subjects, thus making constitution observed in a comprehensive and sound manner; Second, keeping the homeostasis of constitution, which can be ensured by expanding the rights and freedom, improving safeguarding system for civil rights; Third, extending social democracy by enlarging civil rights of citizens as well as the channels through which democracy and civil rights can be realized; Fourth, developing market economy; making efforts to improve productivity, increase social wealth , reduce poverty, meet the growing demand of people and realize even distribution, while giving equal attention to equality and efficiency; preventing polarization between the rich and poor; maintaining sustainable development and keeping away financial crisis, resource crisis and ecological crisis; strengthening legal construction; regulating the market; safeguarding orderly market competition and the lawful interests and rights of market participants; Fifth, constructing harmonious civil society; making more room for the sound development of civic society; stressing and popularizing tolerance; paying more attention to the balance of various interests, in particular, providing more protection for the underprivileged, resolving social contradictions to avoid social conflicts.The conclusion part of this thesis expresses the view that the advancement of constitutionalism is the result of interaction of contradicting elements within constitutionalism. As the basic element of the constitutionalism crisis, constitutionalism conflict is the manifestation of internal contradiction of constitutionalism. Therefore, we should look on the effect constitutionalism crisis has on human constitutionalism civilization from a dialectic perspective.