Crowd-sourced legislation and politics: the legitimacy of constitutional deliberation in Romania

Gherghina, S. and Miscoiu, S. (2016) Crowd-sourced legislation and politics: the legitimacy of constitutional deliberation in Romania. Problems of Post-Communism, 63(1), pp. 27-36. (doi: 10.1080/10758216.2015.1057092)

Abstract

Constitutional reform is a tedious process that requires long periods of time, a relatively broad consensus among political actors, and, often, popular approval. In spite of these, Romania has changed its constitution once (2003) and witnessed several unsuccessful revisions. The most recent attempt, in 2013, introduced a deliberative dimension in the form of a constitutional forum. This article investigates the legitimacy of this deliberative practice using a tri-dimensional approach: input, throughput, and output legitimacy. Our qualitative study relying on direct observation and secondary data analysis concludes that, although input and throughput legitimacy were achieved to a great extent, the output legitimacy was low.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gherghina, Dr Sergiu
• Authors: Gherghina, S., and Miscoiu, S.
• Subjects: J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Problems of Post-Communism
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1075-8216
• ISSN (Online): 1557-783X
• Published Online: 18 December 2015
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
• First Published: First published in Problems of Post-Communism 63(1): 27-36
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy