Abstract

The text deals with the following major themes: the degeneration of the vote of confidence in the legislatures under the majority system; the vote of confidence on maxi-amendments in budgetary procedures and in the parliamentary bills for the conversion of laws by decree: two techniques for the annulling of the power of amendment of parliamentary assemblies; the praxis of maxi-amendments between violation of the constitutional norms on legislative procedure and mortification of the role of Parliament; the problem of the "ratio" of the vote of confidence and the constitutional foundation thereof. Two different functions performed by the institution in republican parliamentary practice; the loss of the fiduciary nature of the vote of confidence; regulatory discipline and the employment of the vote of confidence as a mere procedural expedient: a vote of confidence without debate; a proposal for rationalisation: justification, three-day time limit and guarantee of debate.