Importance of consitutions in Post Communist countries
...set of rules that everyone can follow. If there is no set of rules and people begin to cheat one another because there are no rules and laws than people will not be able to trust one another. This lack of trust can lead the country into ruin because people will be more concerned with protecting themselves than concerned with creating decent state for everyone to live in. Another reason these laws are important is it helps stabilize society. These rules or laws give people a set of boundaries and way in which people should live. By giving this to the people they will be able to feel safe in the country the live in. These laws are not only for the people of the state but these laws encompass the government of the state as well. There needs to be order and stablility within a government of a state. Therefore, if there are no rules for the government of a state and they are free to do as they please they will most likely not be concerned with the interests of the people. In fact, rules and laws play one of the most important parts in creating a constitution because if a constitution is not based on the rules and laws of the people then it will ultimately fail. The state will fail because either the government will abuse the power given to them by taking over the state and not having the interests of the people when making political decisions. Or the people of the state will turn against each other. In this case, people will not be safe to walk down the street out of fear of something bad happening to them. Consequently, coordinating rules of the game are important to constitutions to protect the people as well as the government. The third way in which constitutions play and imperative role is coordinate public protest against violations of the sovereign. This basically means that there should be rights for public protest even if the protest is not against the state but the people within the state themselves. If some people of the state are not cooperating and not playing by the rules of the game that the people set up there should be public protest to help this situation. If instead of having public protests people begin to use violence then the state will only have bloodshed and nothing will have been solved. The fourth reason why constitutions are important constitutions create some type of stablility within a state. In order for these shattered and trashed post-communist countries to recover they need to form a type of government that will provide stability and security. In order for people to start rebuilding a state both economically and politically there needs to be stability. Constitutions can bring stability by giving the people rights that will be protect with or without the government; it provides people rules and laws to live by so that no one feels as though they are not safe. Constitutions also create a system that everyone or a majority of people in state can agree upon. When a majority of people agree upon something then they will be more likely to follow it. Lastly, economic rights are protected within constitutions as well as people’s rights. There are several types of constitutions that can be implemented on a state. There of course, is the unwritten constitution and the written constitution. Even though there are several examples, such as, Great Britain that do not have a written, I feel that written as through written democracies can provide the most protection of the people. Unwritten constitutions do have some good characteristics. For example they seem to be more flexible. The flexibility of a constitution is extremely important because when times change the constitution should be able to change as well. When countries are first created there are certain goals, hopes and ambitions for that country. Constitutions are usually based on these goals, hopes and ambitions. These all change over time. A countries hopes, goals and ambitions do not stay the same forever. Therefore, there should be a constitution that is flexible to change with the changing times. With unwritten constitution it seems to be easier to change. Where as a written constitution is difficult too change at times because people are extremely cautious when changing a written constitution. They are cautious because a constitution shouldn’t be too easy to change. If a constitution is too easy to change then people will be changing the constitution constantly. In that case, if people are constantly changing the constitution it looses its validity and the state becomes less stable. In an unwritten constitution the rights of the people as well as how the government should run are not written down. There is only an assumption and tradition of how things should be run. I feel this creates a more unstable state because at any time the government can take over and have too much control. In this case the people will have no other choice but to obey the government because their rights have not truly been protected. Also, the government will be able to change its founding principles because there is no proof of how the government should be run and what the people truly want in their government. According to Stephen Holmes he realizes that even through these post-communist countries have written constitutions they are not always the best because “it is very difficult to get anyone to revere the will of the framers when circumstances continue to change so rapidly” (Holmes 498). Holmes is basically arguing that in these post-communist countries, when rebuilding occurs, it is very difficult to for people to accept the constitution of the framers because everything is changing rapidly. The people needs and wants are changing as well and often it is hard for these countries to pick framers that they feel will create a good state. These people have a different way of looking at democracy because of the years of corruption they lived with during the communist era. Still, having an adaptable and flexible constitution does create more stability for a state. Another important aspect of a constitution is to create authoritative institutions that do not just limit government. When people are too concerned with the amount of government power and constantly want to restrict the gover...