a role in government at least during a transitional period. In the
1998 Northern Ireland peace settlement the use of this device was
attempted for a second time, failing at first, but reactivated once
more in 2007.
Verney discusses a third major type of democratic constitution in
addition to the parliamentary and presidential models: what he terms
the ‘convention’-style constitution modelled on the revolutionary
French Assembly of 1789. The French constitutional tradition
emphasised the legitimacy of the sovereign national assembly based
on the popular vote. The Assembly could not be dissolved and
exercised detailed control over the personnel of government drawn
from its ranks. Some modern French constitutions (especially the
Third Republic from 1870 to 1940) could be described in these terms,
and on the letter of the constitutional instruments, the Soviet
constitution – and many former Eastern Bloc constitutions influenced
by it – also appeared to be based on this model.
It would be more realistic to describe Soviet-style democracy
as one-party democracy, however, since the legal predominance of
the assembly was clearly only a fiction that scarcely masked the
monopoly of the Communist Party over government, legislature and
every other social and political institution within the state. Only one
party-sponsored candidate was presented in each constituency and all
resolutions of parliament were passed unanimously on the initiative
of the government/party. The party, in turn, was controlled from
the top through the device of ‘democratic centralism’. A claim to
democracy could only be justified by an appeal to the top party
members’ superior grasp of ‘scientific’ socialism which enabled them
to discern and represent the interests of the working masses more
certainly than the workers themselves. It is perhaps surprising that
such an unlikely doctrine could be taken seriously for so long not
only in the Soviet Union itself – where scepticism could prove fatal in
the literal sense – but even amongst intelligent commentators in the
West.
Another version of one-party democracy has been put forward in a
number of post-colonial regimes. Here a virtually all-encompassing
political coalition has been created to fight for independence – often
centred upon some ‘charismatic’ popular leader. Not unnaturally the
national(ist) party obtains an overwhelming victory at the inde-
pendence general election. Opposition to the national leader seems
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