Small States and Constitutional Reform: Democracy in Malta

Abstract

The Republic of Malta is an archipelago of five islands that covers just 122 square miles. Its small size is interesting from a constitutional perspective for the manner in which it impacts upon the nature of its Parliament, the powers of its Government and the strength of its democracy. This chapter examines the relationship between state size and democracy. It argues that whilst the formal features of the Maltese system portray a liberal constitutional democracy, the more informal features undermine this perception. Excessive government power, allegations of corruption and assassination, and weak opportunity for legal and political accountability conspire to present Malta as an imperfect democracy. The chapter discusses recent reforms that attempt to correct this reality and it recommends further changes that are needed to strengthen the Maltese democratic and constitutional order.

Appendix: Notes on Maltese Elections

The Constitution of Malta provides (article 61) that “[t]he Electoral Commission shall review the boundaries of the electoral divisions … at intervals of not less than two nor more than 5 years and may, in accordance with the provisions of this article, alter such boundaries to such extent as it considers desirable”. Despite this, alterations to electoral district boundaries “had become … an exercise the party in government took as its own. This was a known secret and the undeclared practice at the time” (Xuereb 2021).

There are two corrective electoral mechanisms in Malta that potentially increase the size of the legislature beyond the minimum 65 seats. The first, introduced following the 1981 General Election, and amended in 1996 and 2007, permits additional members to be co-opted to the House (increasing its size to 67 or 69) to ensure that the number of seats is proportionate to votes cast in their favour (see Bencini 2018, p. 38; Stanton 2019, p. 53). The second corrective electoral mechanism was introduced in 2022 to address the gender imbalance in Parliament. Following the 2017 General Election, only 7 of the 67 MPs were women. Under the new mechanism, where “a gender has less than 40% representation in Parliament, and only if two political parties successfully elect representatives to the House”, then a maximum of 12 new MPs of the under-represented gender will be elected, with both parties having the same number of new additions (Galea 2022). At the 2022 election, 12 additional female MPs were elected to Parliament: six for each party. Following this election the Maltese Parliament is made up of 79 members.