Normative powers and the shape of government

Abstract

This article examines the relation between the parliamentary form of government and the sources of law system under the spanish Constitution of 1978. Leader of national policy, the Cabinet determines the Cortes (the spanish bicameral Parliament) legislative agenda. However the Cortes control the Government action, impulsing the governmental use of the legislative initiative and its wade rule-making power. The Constitution moreover establishes a large number of material reserves of law, subject to the Cortes legal self reserve. Strongly stable, the Government extends its decisive influence over the Cortes in the posterior phase of the legislative process if the parliamentary group in which finds its support has the most seats in the Law House (what happened the half o times between 1978 and 2009). Otherwise, the institutional Congress role (even the Upper House role) becomes considerably reinforced. No doubt, the Cabinet position if only supported in the Congress by a relative majority gets complicated in the bills of organic laws, quite numerous in the Constitution and concerning about important subjects.