Crowd Sourced Legislation and Politics: The Legitimacy of Constitutional Deliberation in Romania

Sergiu Gherghina Sergiu Miscoiu

2015

Type
journal-article
Region
Romania
Sector
Law
Category
Citizen Engagement and Crowdsourcing, Crowdlaw
Methodology
Case Studies
Objective
Legitimacy

Abstract

Constitutional reform is a tedious process that requires long periods of time, a relatively broad consensus among the political actors, and often needs popular approval. In spite of these, Romania changed its constitution once (2003) and witnessed several unsuccessful revisions. The most recent attempt, in 2013, has introduced the deliberative dimension in the form of a constitutional forum. This article investigates the legitimacy of this deliberative practice using a tri-dimensional approach: input, throughput, and output legitimacy. Our qualitative study relying on direct observation and secondary data analysis concludes that while input and throughput legitimacy were achieved to great extent, the output legitimacy was low.