Politics of Constantinople (Queen of Cities)



The politics of Constantinople take place within the framework of a unitary parliamentary republic with a representative democracy under the guidelines set up by the 1980 Constitution. The government is divided into three branches with the executive branch being headed by the prime minister and the legislative power being vested in the Parliament, which is elected via universal suffrage. The independent judicial branch is subdivided further and three courts are supreme authorities in their respective domains: the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice and the Supreme Administrative Court.

Constantinople is a unitary city-state where significant administrative responsibilities are delegated to its twenty boroughs (arrondissements') as their autonomy in local matters is enshrined into the Constitution. Constantinople joined the European Union in 1999, the Constantinopolitan government therefore has to abide by European treaties, directives and regulations. Freedom House has evaluated the city-state as "free" while the Economist Intelligence Unit has described Constantinople as a "full democracy".

Constitution
The current Constitution of the Republic of Constantinople was adopted via referendum in 1979, replacing the old 1943 Constitution. Written by a left-wing Constituent Assembly the Constitution would mark the final stage of the country's democratization after 40 years of one-party rule as it would solidify the progress that has been made since the 1975 Tulip Revolution.

The Constitution declares Constantinople as a democratic republic that adheres to the principles of dignity, human rights, secularism, parliamentarism with the responsibility of ensuring the happiness of all of its population. The extensive list of individual and social rights are enumerated in the preamble to the Constitution. These rights are inviolable and their list a constitutional right cannot be removed through an amendment.

The 1980 Constitution has been amended by through major constitutional revisions in 1999 (when the country joined the European Union), and in 2018 when some parts of parliamentary procedure were changed, the president's powers were reduced, protections against discrimination were extended to LGBTQ+ people and a system for a semi-direct democracy was implemented. The process of amending the Constitution requires the approval of two-thirds of the Parliament (134 out of 200 MPs) or a referendum of the population. In accordance with the 2018 amendments the Constantinopolitan electorate can now propose a constitutional amendment if 10% of the electorate signs a petition, this petition would then need to be approved by 50% of the country's electorate. The citizen-led proposals can be declared as illegal or unconstitutional during the Constitutional Court's mandatory examination.

Head of state
The country's head of state is the president who acts as a ceremonial figure mainly tasked with representing the country on the international stage. The few powers that the president possessed under the 1980 Constitution (such as their nominal role as commander-in-chief, their capacity to veto legislation and their unilateral power to dissolve Parliament), were repealed in 2018 in the most recent constitutional revision. Since then, the president acts as a rubber stamp on the decisions of the prime minister and Parliament. While the president is not prohibited from giving their opinion on political matters, no president has expressed their views while in office since the beginning of the tradition of election of non-politicians as heads of state in the 1990s.

Head of government
The country's chief executive is the prime minister, appointed by the president and approved following a general policy statement that needs to be approved by a vote in Parliament. The prime minister appoints the members of the Councils of Ministers are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister. Both the Council and prime ministers are responsible before Parliament and can be forced to resign by a motion of no confidence. The current cabinet is the Second Loukas government in the aftermath of the 2019 election.

Powers of the prime minister have been curtailed by the 2018 amendments to the Constitution. The prime minister lost his ability to dissolve Parliament and call for an early election by advising the president. In addition, the prime minister's role in naming the judges to the judiciary have been given legislative oversight.

The prime minister and his staff are located in the Beylerbeyli Palace in the eponymous neighborhood in the Borough of Scutari on the Anatolian side of the Bosporus.

Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers is appointed and dismissed by the president on the advice of the prime minister before being confirmed (along with the prime minister) by the Parliament in the statement of general policy. The relationship between the prime minister and his government vary by officeholder and time period, with some prime ministers (Erkmen, Antoniou, Djelal) allocating all decision-making to themselves while others (Asatryan, Loukas) acted as a first among equals.

The government has a leading role in shaping the legislative agenda as it generally proposes most of the laws that are voted on in Parliament. Legislation in each field is usually proposed by the corresponding minister. The Council of Ministers usually meets one or two times per week in the at the prime minister's office at the Beylerbeyli Palace.

While the number and responsibilities of ministries differ from government to government. Some ministries are found in all governments:
 * Ministry of Economy and Finance
 * Ministry of Education
 * Ministry of Foreign Affairs
 * Ministry of Health
 * Ministry of Justice
 * Ministry of Interior Affairs
 * Ministry of National Security
 * Ministry of Transportation

Current governement
The current government is the Second Loukas government, which was named by the president on July 3, 2019 and whose general policy statement was approved by Parliament on July 8 by a 102 votes to 31. The government is formed by a coalition between the Justice Party, the Democratic Party and VM!. The Council of Ministers is composed of eight women (including the prime minister) and eight men, being only the fourth cabinet to respect gender parity.

Legislature
The country's legislature is the unicameral Parliament, elected via universal suffrage through closed-list proportional representation. The Parliament meets for a nine-month ordinary session every year, and the president has the power to call for extraordinary sessions when asked by the prime minister.

The Parliament is composed of 200 members that are elected for four year terms. Since the adoption of constitutional amendments in 2018 the prime minister no longer has the power to dissolve the legislature as the members of Parliament gained the ability to directly dissolve the chamber through a motion of dissolution.

Key issues
Since the country's return to democracy in 1975 its politics have been characterized as adversarial as the country continues to determine its identity through the lens of parliamentary politics. Constantinopolitan politics have been dominated by three groups: the anti-neoliberal left (in power in 1976–1984, 1992–1993, 1994–1996, 2016 and since 2017), the social-liberal center-left (in power in 1993–1994, 1998–2009, 2015–2017) and the liberal-conservative right (1984–1992, 1996–1998, 2009–2015).