Konstytucyjny model prezydentury w Republice Białoruś

Abstract

This work is focused on the constitutional determinants of the model of presidency in the Republic of Belarus, implemented by Alexander Lukashenko for more than 20 years now. The basic feature of this model is the head of state having extremely strong and vast power, greatly extending the sphere of executive power. The Belarusian president is able to exert his power over the whole system of public authority bodies, and does so. He can be called the “effective force” of the functioning of the state, making his office its actual headquarters. There is also no exaggeration in referring to the relations occurring in political practice between him and all other entities of the state apparatus as a presidential dictatorship, and to the whole political regime as the “hard” form of an authoritarian system. The provisions of the constitution of the Republic of Belarus of 15 March 1994 with the amendments made as a result of the referendum of 24 November 1996, making the president superior to the other state authorities, and thus making the principle of separation of powers included in Article 6 an empty declaration, provide the legal premises for the head of state acting in this way. The constitutional domination of the president in the structure of the state authority is strengthened even more by the political activity of Alexander Lukashenko, making his authority near absolute.