CONSTITUTIONAL “POSTMODERNISM” OR ALSO THE MODERNIZATION OF CLASSICAL CONSTITUTIONAL MODELS

Abstract

The revolutionary political changes of the 1990s led to processes culminating in installation of new constitutional democracies in Central and Eastern European countries. Adoption of new constitutions was thus linked both to use of established models of classical Western democracies and to the constitutional creativity of new democratically elected authorities. The constitutional changes thus focused mainly on the installation of the separation of powers in the model of parliamentary form of government, the development of the concept of territorial self-governing units, the installation of so-called independent constitutional bodies, the constitutional enshrinement of the classical catalogue of fundamental rights and freedoms, and the constitutional establishment of constitutional review through constitutional courts. From the comparative point of view, the constitutional character of new democracies thus clearly demonstrates their modernising usefulness and enrichment of the experience of classical constitutionalism.