News

Supply without Demand

17/10/2014

arm141352481142

arm141352481142
The passion around Constitutional reforms rose to another level. The current conflict has several levels: contextual (relevance of change), political (change of the state system as a mechanism for power reproduction), but some fundamental aspects of the issue seem to be out of the public attention.

The most important of them is the issue of public demand for the change of the Constitution, the Basic law of the country.

Study of the public demand for Constitutional reforms became one of key issues of the research conducted by Advanced Public Research (APR) Group NGO, the only research related to this topic so far (Research Results of the RA constitutional reforms, Yerevan 2014).

Indeed, the vast majority of experts interviewed during the qualitative part of the research voiced their reservations on this issue. Firstly, they argued the relevancy of frequent amendments in the Basic Law.

One of members of the Committee on Constitutional Reforms mentioned “The frequent amendments in the Constitution mean that we are unable to ensure goals. As, eventually, the Basic law is the basis for all other laws and normative acts, which requires reasonable time for adoption, and we don’t grant this time to executive bodies, we result in failure for them to operate”.

The next group of recorded reservations is about the demand and timeliness of amendments. One of experts in Constitution states that “the Constitution should be changed only when it doesn’t only contribute to the development of country and society or human protection and self-expression, but prevents… seriously prevents the development of the country.  

This concern finds its further development in another expert opinion who views the problem from the point of conflict of interest. "If there is a need for change, the need will be conditioned with dissatisfaction of people or society or individual. In this particular case, the state stands out from them (author:  people) and starts to pursue its corporate interest.  And in that case the state will definitely not initiate a constitutional amendment, which will expand its obligations, and expand rights people, but instead, will logically lead to a condition, which will ease the government's prosecution of corporate interests, will create new opportunities for it, which  always takes place at the expense of people’s or individual’s rights and opportunities. "

Concluding existing issues in this context leads to a main question: what is the efficiency factor of Constitutional reforms in the country if the significant part of the society is not convinced in the existence of state and public control mechanisms ensuring equal and fair implementation of Constitutional provisions.

In other words there is a deep notion in Armenia that even implementation of most perfect Constitutional norms will bedisproportionate and discriminatory within the principle " rights are ours, but responsibilities are yours".

This concern is highlighted in the quantitative section of the research as well, as about 81% of 1300 Armenianresidents surveyed have no trust in the process of Constitutional reforms, while about 60 % of themdo not see a need for Constitutional reforms.

Concerns of the majority of experts increase when they observe Constitutional reforms as an electoral process. According to many of respondents in case when there is no trust in elections, referendums and other similar processes, the need for Constitutional reforms stays in doubt. Even experts in favor reforms note the lack of confidence in the electoral system which makes reforms meaningless. As one of Parliament members states (one of Deputy Chairmen of the National Assembly) "...thousands of today's problems can be solved in the framework of the current Constitution, which is not the case. Only confidence will enable to speak of Constitutional reforms."

Skepticism towards the electoral system is reflected in the response of the population of Armenia. To the question whether results of elections in Armenia correspond to reality (or are trustworthy) about 57% of the respondents gave a negative response. 

Thus, the research conducted by “Advanced Public Research Group” (APR Group) revealed also two significant issues.

  • Initiated Constitutional reforms are not demanded among experts and the majority of Armenian population.
  • Lack of trust in the electoral system makes the legitimacy of the amended Constitution problematic. 

 

Arthur Avtandilyan,
“Increasing the Role of the Civil Society in Political Processes of Armenia”
Project Manager Assistant

APR Group 

The article was published on www.lragir.am.