Any country going through a democratic transition has to develop a strategy
on its own. Such a strategy can follow one out of two available routes. In the
first one, the importance of a new electoral law is fully evaluated as well as
the impact of such an option on the legal system. Political parties debate the
proposal in order to reach a sound understanding about it.
From a comparative point of view, the most successful cases are those in
which a multi-party commission is empowered to draft the new law. A broad
consensus opens up the most desirable route to begin the electoral process and
the democratic transition.
However, this option has some practical setbacks with respect to the first
elections organized at the beginning of the transition period. Some of such
setbacks are worth being mentioned:
- First, this option can
contribute to extend the powers of provisional authorities in charge. Such
an extension cannot be good and may bring along serious consequences. It
may extend the powers of provisional authorities, affecting both their
legitimacy and the efficacy of the new regime.
- Secondly, a new law may
produce an illusion. Such an illusion can be seen as a rather frequent
event in transition periods, because political parties, which took a
relevant role drafting the law, do not usually get an equivalent prominent
role in the new regime. Therefore, the electoral legislation derived from
the process can lack a real representative dimension.
The second route available would be to adopt a strategy aimed at shortening
the legislative process. In such a case, the government usually decides to
modify existent laws. Experts are commissioned to work on the matter using
international support. This strategy too can face some setbacks, although:
- On one hand, as long as
many important issues of the old regime can be preserved, legislative
reforms can be either inadequate or inconsistent.
- On the other hand,
electoral laws are not very easily reformed. It is not very simple to
reform electoral laws in a deep way.
Bearing all this in mind, additional strategies can be explored as follows:
- This third approach can
be described as a synthetic strategy in which the government enacts
provisional rules aimed at regulating the undertaking of elections. Such
regulation forces the elected Parliament to draft new electoral laws.
- Finally, we can talk
about a gradual and slow-paced process that takes place in some locations.
Such a process is aimed at political transitions and takes place by means
of several elections which progressively introduce plural features
reflected in law.
Gradualist strategies are derived from the political dialogue and the compromises reached between governments and minorities and can be more or less explicit. The more explicit such dialogues are, the more legitimate they become.
