Qualified majority. Truth and fiction

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

It's no secret that in the modern world in most countries of the world (the Russian Federation, the United States and others) a democratic legal regime has been established. One of its main characteristics can be called the supremacy of human rights and freedoms. Hence the elections. But not everything is so simple. Many laws require special discretion on the part of voters. That's when the qualified majority comes into play.

Concept

But what is it anyway? In simple terms, a qualified majority is a two-thirds, three-fourths, or even more advantage in any issue. That is, the bill must be approved by an absolutely large part of the participants in the meeting. This is not so easy to achieve, so people are still not sure about the supermajority system and it is very common to hear how politicians leadfurious debate about this.

Alternatives and why they sometimes don't work?

There are two other options that are preferable in many situations. For example, an absolute majority system assumes that a bill, in order to enter into force, must gain fifty percent of the electorate and in addition to them one more vote. People all over the world recognize that even one point added to that fifty percent can make all the difference. This system is actively used in the elections of various political figures, such as presidents, chancellors, and so on. Then, accordingly, the object of the hearings is not a bill, but a candidate. But the main problem is that very often it is necessary to re-hold elections, because the voters may not come to an agreement. The same drawback, of course, is also characteristic of the qualified majority system, but to a greater extent.

According to the second alternative, the famous system of relative majority, for the bill to be passed, it should not gain more than fifty percent. It is enough to bypass competitors, and it does not matter how many points. Such a system is very actively used in politics. The United States of America, Great Britain and Japan choose the members of their Congresses in this way. In the Russian Federation, State Duma deputies are elected in this manner. The problem with this system is that it greatly simplifies the process of passing laws or electing members of parliament. That is why heris considered not as well-founded and fair as the same system of a qualified majority.

The political side of the issue

But where, then, is this strict system used, if the systems of absolute and relative majority are mainly used in elections? Everything is very simple. In the Russian Federation, the majority qualified majority system is used if it is necessary to amend the highest normative act, namely the Constitution. It is extremely difficult to do this. It requires the lower house of the Federal Assembly, the State Duma, to agree to the amendment by a two-thirds majority. As for the upper chamber, the Federation Council, it must support the reform with a three-quarters majority. It is, of course, very difficult to achieve such unanimity. It is for this reason that the supermajority system is used primarily for truly global changes that affect all spheres of society.

Tricks

There is another complication. The Constitution of the Russian Federation itself does not allow changing the first, second and ninth chapters in any way. The irony lies in the fact that the ninth chapter is just the same and devoted to amending the Constitution. But at the same time, this ban, albeit with difficulty, can be circumvented. For example, if the deputies of both chambers, the State Duma and the Federation Council vote for the convocation of a new Constitutional Assembly, and this bill receives three-fifths of the votes of all voters,it is still possible to change these three chapters.

Joint-stock companies

The federal law on joint-stock companies clearly states that absolutely any amendments to the charter of a particular joint-stock company, changes in the cost of shares and a decree on the dissolution of the company are adopted based on the qualified majority system. As you can see, in the economic sphere, too, only the most important issues are decided on the condition that one of the decisions receives a majority of three-quarters of the votes of the electorate. Also, any questions as to whether it is worth reforming the internal structure of society in any way are also decided by a qualified majority. In addition, one of the most serious decisions of a joint-stock company in the Russian Federation is consent to major financial transactions. But the list does not end there either. Any joint-stock company can prescribe in the charter that other decisions are made by a qualified majority of votes. The main thing is that the questions should be within the scope of the entire meeting of shareholders.

International Organizations

Recently, more and more countries are joining the European Union. For this reason, a rather serious reform of the Council of the European Union was carried out in 2014. Now a decision on any issue is made only if two hundred and fifty-five members of the Council out of three hundred and forty-five (about seventy-three percent) agree. Moreover, these voters must be representatives of fourteen of the twenty-seven countries and sixty-twopercent of the population of the European Union.