The State of Law and the Multi-Party System

• Author: Professor Neculai BobicĂ, PhD
• Position: "Danubius" University of Galati

The concept of state of law appeared with the theory of the power separation in the state, whose initiator was the English philosopher John Locke. Here for the first time one came across the idea that the Parliament, as representative of the people, needs to own great amount of power when compared to executive power, that adopting laws is the prerogative of the Parliamentary institution and that the monarch needs to obey the laws adopted by the Parliament. „In a state based on its own fundament and acting according to its own nature (i.e. to preserve the Community), there can only be one single supreme power, that of the law, to which all the other powers need to be subordinated" (Locke, 1999, p. 146). It is therefore the law that needs to be the basis of the entire activity of the state and not the various situational initiatives of the head of the state, which are most of the time marked by a high degree of subjectivity and negative influences from around. Furthermore John Locke came up with an idea that was to become the doctrine of the state of law, i.e. that all people must observe the law and that all people are equal in front of the law.

The requirement to make the law the basis of the whole activity of the state and of the relation between state and its citizens will gradually become the credo of the entire European movement of political emancipation and of creating a state acting for the citizens and not as their supreme master. According to Montesquieu for instance - who is otherwise regarded as a continuator of the spirit founded by J. Locke and the classical author of the principle of power separation - the essence of freedom is represented by the government of the law.

In time, as the theoretical principles of the main representatives of the European Enlightenment are applied in practice, it shall become obvious that neither the power separation, nor the triumph of democracy in political life is enough to protect citizens from abuses conducted by the state or to benefit from truly fair laws, applicable in the same way for all citizens. One noticed that under certain circumstances democracy may be just as tyrannical to some categories of citizens like despotic regimes, so that many of the laws emerging from a democratic regime may be equally unjust like those emerging from a totalitarian regime. Is there perhaps no perfect compatibility between democracy and the state of law? Is not democracy that form of political organization, in which the ideal inspiring the fight for the state of law is closest to being fulfilled?

Before trying to clarify all these issues, one should first remark that it is not the democracy itself or the authentic type of democracy that is responsible for some failures mentioned above. Secondly, one should also make clear that no type of political organization, democracy included, is perfect and that therefore imperfections and failures are always to be found.

History shows that in order for the human society to function at its best, in accordance with the legitimate goals of all social categories, the state of law and democracy need to be constant realities, in permanent interaction and balance; this balance actually imposes a series of measures regarding not only the way democracy is being applied, but also the way the state of law is organized. However, it is also history that shows that this goal is fully possible in the case of traditional democracies, whereas in more recent democratic regimes - such as those established two decades ago in those countries freed from the communist doctrine - things are not so easy, which is for instance perfectly illustrated by the evolution of the political situation in Romania.

The transition from the totalitarian state to the state of law represents one of the major achievements of the Romanian society after 1989. As it has been already stated, what differentiates a state of law from a totalitarian state is the fact that the supreme authority is represented by the state itself, and not by a certain political party, the whole activity of the state being governed exclusively by the law. The power in the state of law is obtained and exerted in a democratic way, the multiparty system playing a very important role in this case.

However the two principles that make up the basis of the proper organization and functioning of the state of law - supremacy of the law and multiparty system - and that grant...