The Formal Political System in Azerbaijan

Author(s): Andreas Heinrich
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 24
Pages: 2-5
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2011

The article provides a brief overview of the formal political system in Azerbaijan and its practical application. After analyzing Azerbaijan's constitutional development, it examines in detail the main formal political institutions, such as the presidency, the executive branch (consisting of the government and administration), the parliament, the political party system, the electoral system, civil society and the mass media. In presenting information about the entire formal political system of Azerbaijan in a systematic manner, the study seeks to show how the individual institutions are intertwined. It first and foremost describes how the institutions and rules are formally laid out; it also analyses how these formal institutions are manipulated in practice to protect the ruling elite from any democratic accountability or change of power theoretically provided for by the constitution.

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