Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review

Social Legal Consciousness or Legal Culture?

H. Szilágyi István — 2023-02-14

In contemporary legal sociology research, legal culture and legal consciousness are often used as synonymous or closely related, overlapping concepts. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the possibility of separating the two concepts through a more in-depth analysis. The first part of the paper explores the ideological-historical connections between the two concepts and argues that the conceptual confusion between legal culture and legal consciousness that characterises contemporary legal sociology occurred in the 1970s in American legal scholarship. The concept of social legal consciousness is first discussed in the context of conceptual analysis. After a general definition of legal consciousness, the components of individual legal consciousness, the factors and mediating structures linking individual and social legal consciousness, and finally the theoretical issues of conceptualisation are discussed. The second part of the conceptual analysis focuses on the concept of legal culture. The difficulties of defining the concept are taken into account, starting from a review of the academic debate surrounding the work of Lawrence Friedman. The concept of legal culture is constructed on the basis of the criteria for conceptualisation derived from this. The core concept is culture, and the distinguishing feature is a sociological concept of law. Next, it introduces the distinction between lay and professional culture and examines the extent to which the concept of legal culture thus outlined meets the criteria set out above. The paper concludes by summarising the rationale and yields of the conceptual analysis, highlighting the dynamic relationship between legal culture and social legal consciousness.

The Changes of Japanese Attitude toward Law and Legal System

Kinoshita Manako — 2023-02-14

This paper compares and analyses the results of a social survey on legal attitudes conducted from January to February 2022 among Japanese citizens (aged 18 or older) nationwide (hereinafter referred to as the 2022 survey) as a follow-up to the 1976 survey and the 2005 survey, which were conducted in previous years.

The 2022 survey focused on three lower-level attitudes that constitute legal attitudes: 1. flexibility; 2. naïve moral sentiment (naïve morality); and 3. severe punishment orientation. First, we examined the attitude toward flexibility, especially the legal attitude toward flexibility in contracts. And we found that the majority of respondents in the 2022 survey, regardless of gender or generation, demanded strictness when concluding contracts, but flexibility when executing contracts. This result is almost the same as in the 1976 and 2005 surveys. Regarding the naïve moral sentiment, a change was observed in the 2022 survey, with a decrease among males aged 60 and over and an increase among females in their 20s. The proportion of each
pattern accounted for by the combination of flexibility, naïve moral sentiment and severe punishment orientation in the 2022 survey did not differ significantly from the 1976 and 2005 surveys.

Public Perception of the Hungarian Local Government Reform

Badó Attila — 2023-02-14

Following a change of government in 2010, the Hungarian local government system underwent a period of significant transformation. The question of how it is viewed and the effects it may have are currently being debated. The centralising effort of the government had already become clear beyond a shadow of a doubt before the adoption of the Cardinal Act or the Fundamental Law (2011) itself. This was followed by the steps of the local government reform, which transferred many local government powers to the state. Municipalities lost influence over local public education institutions, municipal hospitals and many other areas. In this situation, where there was a significant loss of influence by local elites, it became an interesting question to what extent this changed society’s relationship with local government. Our comprehensive research has conducted a number of quantitative and qualitative studies to answer this question. Between 2016 and 2018, our research group had the opportunity to conduct four empirical studies to assess knowledge, attitudes and opinions related to local government. This paper presents and interprets the results of this research, and an important area of public attitudes towards local government, in particular with regard to the division of responsibilities between the state and municipalities.

Why Mexicans (Dis) Obey the Law

Pérez León Rebeca — 2023-02-14

This paper presents the results of an experimental research project on the causes of Mexicans’ law-abiding and non-abiding behaviour. Firstly, it explains the theories tested, namely, deterrence and normative theory of law-abidance, and defines the concepts measured. Regarding deterrence theory, the causal efficacy of knowledge of legal punishment was measured and of normative theory that of social and personal norms. Second, it describes how these concepts were operationalised and how the two-stage experimental survey was conducted. Finally, the paper outlines the main results. The statistical analyses show that neither social norms explain
unlawful behaviour nor knowledge of legal punishment influence law-abiding behaviour among Mexicans in specific situations. However, the analysis did show a statistically significant disagreement between Mexicans’ behaviour and normative beliefs, which reveals a case of pluralistic ignorance whereby Mexicans behave illegally and believe others approve of illegal behaviour, but they personally disapprove of it. These results, however, would have to be confirmed in a study with a representative sample to be conclusive.

How Can Governmental Incentives Inspire Youth to Be More Engaged in Environmental Protection?

Aden Kadir — 2023-02-14

During the past years, environmental protection and adopting countermeasures against climate change have been on the agenda of many East African countries, as well as western nations, although a common challenge confronted by policymakers is directing young people’s interest toward the environment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of certain factors that can be adopted by government bodies as a strategy to make youth more engaged in environmental activities. An electronic questionnaire was completed by Djiboutian young people from February 2022 to late June 2022. We retrieved 440 out of 500 questionnaires; a structural equation model was subsequently employed to assess the effects of government rewards, interactions, capacity building and favourable policies on youth engagement. According to the results, all the factors demonstrated a positive impact on youth engagement; consequently, we conclude that young people have tendencies to engage in activities that revolve around environmental issues when there is a reward system in place. Likewise, establishing an interactive platform that accommodates young people’s opinions while the government provides reasonable feedback will stimulate engagement. Reasonably, embracing policies in favour of the environment will depict the government as an effective, responsible leader, retroactively influencing young people’s perceptions. On the other hand, allowing youths to participate in the process of policies formulation will guarantee a long-term societal engagement, since, pragmatically speaking, these adopted policies will eventually influence their future; at the same time, we conclude that providing proper training and building young people’s capacity will provide them with fundamental personal skills, while simultaneously enhancing their sustainable attitude to respond adequately to environmental challenges consequently assisting the national government with their environmental endeavours. Finally, the following paper contributes to the relevant existing body of literature, by providing empirical evidence on different types of government initiatives that could make young people more engaged and inclined in environmental issues.

Populism and Liberal Constitutionalism

Szentgáli-Tóth Boldizsár — 2023-02-14

Our paper focuses on the impact of populism on the functioning of constitutional democracy in Europe. To analyse such a complex issue, a survey has been elaborated, which tries to outline how the current populist tendencies influence the institutional framework of constitutional democracy and to what extent such parties aim and are able to undermine the long-term prevalence of rule of law. To achieve this goal, the survey monitors, amongst others, the use of referenda in European countries; the presence of instruments of participatory and direct democracy; which are the political programme of populist parties, and in particular what are their ambitions concerning institutional reforms; whether the status, the independence, the competence and the composition of the constitutional court and the judiciary are contested. The survey also examines whether the protection standard of the most important fundamental rights are relativized, or are intended to be relativized by the populist parties of the different countries. We approached young constitutional scholars from certain member states, at the initial stage of their academic career, and asked them to fill the survey.

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Constitutionalism and the State of Emergency

Sinani Blerton — 2023-02-14

The emanation of the Covid-19 global pandemic has managed to influence specific legal, political and socio-economic aspects. Public health, public institutions, as well as concepts such as: the rule of law, restriction of certain human rights and socio-economic wellbeing became characteristics of the global pandemic and as such triggered a state of emergency. The pandemic cannot be a justified pretext for an unlimited suspension of democracy. Indeed, restrictions on civil rights and liberties ought to be interim, proportional and transparent. Although the emergency measures taken by governments against the Covid-19 should be provisional, timebound and in congruence with democracy as any contemporary political regime or state governed by the rule of law. This situation once again revealed to us the importance of a constitutional state of emergency guided by public law in its forms and examples of comparative constitutional law regarding events which in 2020 demanded the emergence and function of public institutions in an effort to protect society. The state of emergency is regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia of 1991 in general which gives the government expansive power, such as bypassing the parliament’s power through issuing acts by force of law. It is worth mentioning that in North Macedonia there is no lex specialis or special legislative act that regulates a state of emergency.

Polish Experience in the Search for the Optimal Model of Performing and Financing Metropolitan Tasks

Ofiarska Małgorzata — 2023-02-14

For nearly 25 years, the problem of managing public affairs in metropolitan areas in Poland has been present in the public debate and the legislative process. The aim of the study is to analyse and evaluate the projects and adopted acts dedicated to such areas. Using legal dogmatics and historical and legal methods, successive attempts have been made to adopt a legal basis for managing metropolitan areas and performing and financing metropolitan tasks, both in the form of a single act, regulating the organisation and functioning of metropolitan selfgovernment throughout the country using a comprehensive and framework approach and legal solutions dedicated to only one metropolitan area. In 2017, the first and so far the only metropolitan union in Poland was established in the Silesian Voivodeship. It was determined that the search for appropriate organisational forms for the performance and sources of financing metropolitan tasks had not yet been completed. So far, an agreement has been reached on the choice of a statutory functional solution based on the structure of a metropolitan union and a catalogue of metropolitan tasks, separate from the public tasks of municipalities and districts. The metropolitan union was provided with financing from the state budget.