The role of parliamentary opposition in liberalconstitutional systems

Strands of democratic governance and parliaments have been more prevalently in use since the very beginning of 19th Century, thus having the absolute power of monarchs shared by the public through the assigned representatives. Coexistence of different ideas in parliaments have led to emergence of factions and eventually founding of parties due to the need to air their ideas in respective single voice, thereby introducing us to the concepts of parliamentary opposition along with political power. Parliamentary opposition which is currently regarded as one of the pre-requisites of liberal constitutional systems has to be equipped with multiple tools and facilities which will enable it to be established in real terms, conduct its activities independently, supervise and, if need be, curb the political power. Reinforcement of parliamentary opposition in liberal constitutional systems will be facilitated by giving the former the leading role in various activities of legislative and executive branches, cherishing positive discrimination against the same and furthermore paving the way for triggering of miscellaneous legal mechanisms. Additionally, incorporating the parliamentary opposition into establishment of judicial branch without any prejudice to judicial independence will substantially empower the opposition in constitutional systems. In this regard, accomplishment of the above-cited principles will declare and acknowledge the parliamentary opposition as the guardian and guarantor of liberal constitutional system, democracy and pluralism. To this end, through a comparative analysis of different practices carried out by the states with liberal constitutional systems, this thesis examines the legal mechanisms which are or should be in place to be able to allow the parliamentary opposition to attain the given desired status and gain strength. In this sense, upon describing how the opposition should be equipped with effective legal mechanisms, it is aimed to explore the formula as to how to design the powers in accordance with checks and balances and how to establish a liberal constitutional order as guarantor of pluralism.