Minority Veto Rights in Kosovo’s Democracy

Session

Law

Description

Kosovo political system belongs to the power sharing democracies. Indeed, it has all characteristics of Consociational Democracy. In addition to that, minority veto rights is absolute one and goes above aims of this type of democracy. As it is designed in current Constitutional arrangements, even a single word of Constitution can’t be changed without minorities vote. This is different from other Consociationl Democracies, where minorities are entitled with selected veto power only regarding their vital interests, but they can’t block constitutional decision-making. Since Kosovo is among the youngest countries worldwide, this constitutional provision can be heavy obstacle even in state building efforts of majority. Therefore ,in this article we will try to explain in depth this constitutional arrangement versus principles of sharing power systems and versus similar democracies in the region and above. The doctrinal constitutional interpretation and comparative methods are going to be main pillars of the research methodology.

Keywords:

Kosovo, Constitution, Minority, Veto Rights, Consociational Democracy, Sharing Power

Session Chair

Joana Qeleshi

Session Co-Chair

Jorida Xhafaj

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-69-1

Location

Pristina, Kosovo

Start Date

27-10-2018 10:45 AM

End Date

27-10-2018 12:15 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2018.265

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Oct 27th, 10:45 AM Oct 27th, 12:15 PM

Minority Veto Rights in Kosovo’s Democracy

Pristina, Kosovo

Kosovo political system belongs to the power sharing democracies. Indeed, it has all characteristics of Consociational Democracy. In addition to that, minority veto rights is absolute one and goes above aims of this type of democracy. As it is designed in current Constitutional arrangements, even a single word of Constitution can’t be changed without minorities vote. This is different from other Consociationl Democracies, where minorities are entitled with selected veto power only regarding their vital interests, but they can’t block constitutional decision-making. Since Kosovo is among the youngest countries worldwide, this constitutional provision can be heavy obstacle even in state building efforts of majority. Therefore ,in this article we will try to explain in depth this constitutional arrangement versus principles of sharing power systems and versus similar democracies in the region and above. The doctrinal constitutional interpretation and comparative methods are going to be main pillars of the research methodology.