Az etnicitás, mint a politikai képviselet alapja
The paper is dedicated to the examination of the issue of representation of ethnic minorities in Parliaments, and is aimed at bringing together and outlining the applicable theoretical and practical arguments for and against attempts implementing minority-representation within a unicameral Parliamentary system. The core question is whether or not claims for minority parliamentary representation, functioning outside the terrain of ordinary political and electoral requirements, are permissible; and bow can they be justified wi1b convincing arguments within the theoretical framework of constitutionalism?
In the first, theoretical part, after a brief encounter on the most widely applied forms of minority representation in legislative organs, a thorough scrutiny of the traditional liberal arguments against the granting of sui generis ethnic minority manda1cs in unicameral parliamen1s will be provided. Following that, the fundamental characteristics of and justifying reasons for an "ethnic balance”-based state structure, as one type of a solution for providing and securing de facto minority rights (as opposed to formal declarations for virtual equality) will be examined.
Thereafter, having elaborated the fundamental constitutional-theoretical differences between the "representation" and the "ethnic balance"-based form of minority rcpresenta1ion and parliamentary existence, an international (mostly former Yugoslavian legislative history-focused) survey on the various applied forms and systems of minority representation; and an assessment of some of the Hungarian legislative possibilities of the issue will be provided.