The stability of CEE constitutions in light of their social context

After the transition period, in the vast majority of Central and Eastern European countries new constitutions were enacted which laid democratic rule and the rule of law. (The two exceptions are Poland and Hungary with their ‘late’ constitutions, encated in 1997 and 2011.) The paper’s hypothesis is that the stability of the constitutions, the frequency of amendments as well as of constitutional crises and their intensity reflects the commitment of the members of the given society to the constitutional principles and constitutional structures of their country. To illustrate this connection, the paper presents case studies from Hungary, Moldova and Romania related to constitutional crises and constitutional amendments.