ANKARA- In the first seminar of the Constitution Experts Seminar Series launched by TEPAV, Prof. Jan-Erik Lane from Freiburg University delivered a speech titled "Two Meanings of Rule of Law."

Prof. Dr. Jan-Erik Lane, one of the prominent political sciences and constitution experts of the world, indicated that frequent amendments in constitutions imply an instability and disagreement in basic constitutional topics. Lane maintained that constitutional amendments should not be rushed but must be accomplished upon long discussions and with a wide-base consensus. Underlining that the written constitution does not necessarily coincide with the de facto constitution executed by the institutions of a country, Lane recommended Turkey to focus more on the "de facto constitution" related with the implementation and executing institutions.

Prof. Dr. Lane, evaluating different political systems in his speech, highlighted that parliamentarism, unitary state format and PR schemes gave better results in democracy and rule of law scales compared to other options, namely presidentialism, federalism, and majoritarian election formulas.

Stating that Turkey should take Western European system rather than the US system as an example, Lane underlined the importance of the Ombudsman institution. Prof. Dr. Lane maintained that decentralization, which enables the remaking of decisions in the process of democratization is a must for a more transparent and accountable system.

Addressing the 10% election threshold implemented in Turkey in the context of the discussion on election systems Lane argued that the mentioned threshold is too high and that ideally the threshold should not be more than 5% to facilitate the formation of governments. Lane recommended that closure of political parties should be made harder and underlined that election of president already constitutes a risk for the system employed in Turkey, where the prime minister is furnished with excessive authorities and that the parliamentary democracy shall be strengthened.

Jan-Erik Lane also delivered a presentation on the rule of law and underlined that the concept can be understood in two senses. Lane argued that rather than the narrow definition of the concept, which emphasizes the totality and functionality and the execution of the judicial system, a broader definition which prioritizes the voice of the public and accountability shall be focused on. Lane maintained that Turkey performed even worse than some Arab countries in terms of the narrow sense of the rule of law while the country was a prominent one among other Muslim countries but lagged way behind Western countries. Jan-Lane Lane underlined that more efforts should be made for democratization and advised Turkey to adhere strictly to the principles of secularism and multiculturalism during the process.

Who is Jan-Erik Lane?

Jan-Erik Lane was born in Sweden in 1946. He completed undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies in Umea University, Sweden. Lane also taught political sciences at the same university as well as in Oslo and Geneva universities. Lane, who taught several courses in a number of universities throughout the world as a visiting professor, has written various publications on political theory, public administration, public policy, comparative politics, globalization, and culture. Lane, who has more than 200 publications in the field of political sciences and economics and who is famous with the principal agent approach in political sciences, also made valuable contributions to constitutions and constitutionalism literature.

Selected publications:

Institutional Reform: A public policy perspective. 1989

Constitutions and Political Theory. 1996

New Public Management. 2000

Democracy: A Comparative Approach 2003

Public Administration and Public Management: The Principal-Agent Perspective, 2005

Globalisation and Politics. 2006.

Politics - the Principal-Agent Approach 2006

Comparative Politics - the principal-agent perspective. 2007