Constrained majoritarianism: Westminster constitutionalism in Malta

This article discusses Malta's constitutional system as a variation on the ‘Westminster model’. Despite proportional representation, Malta maintains a strictly majoritarian (Lijphart, 1999 Lijphart, A. (1999). Patterns of democracy: Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries. Yale: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]) core of ‘delegation and accountability’ (Strøm et al., 2005), from the people, through Parliament, to the Government, structured through a two-party system. This majoritarian core is balanced, however, by peripheral institutions (such as the Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, President, and Electoral Commission), which partially constrain the exercise of majoritarian power. Using a typology developed by Glover and Hazell (2008 Hazell, R. (2008). Conclusion: Where will the Westminster model end up? In R. Hazell (Ed.), Constitutional futures revised: Britain's constitution to 2020 (pp. 285–300). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Malta is presented as an example of a ‘Westminster Constitutionalised’ polity, combining majoritarian rule and concentrated powers with entrenched, legal constitutionalism.