means the privelage of voting for candidates for public offices
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Answer:
A prominent American statesman Franklin Knight Lane once said: "A public office is not a
job, it is an opportunity to do something for the public."
Democracy should have only one master: the people themselves. However it seems that
some leading politicians have not absorbed this lesson. Deriving from the Slovenian
constitution the MPs have a representative mandate which means they are representatives
of all people and not merely of those who voted for them. In a normal and democratic political
culture it suffices that the MPs are aware they are not in the Parliament to serve themselves
nor their political parties and that they genuinely and strongly thrive for subsystems of a
society to function in a harmonised way and to develop successfully.
However, in often seems that this task is ignored by them and the public office is merely a
tool, an opportunity for them to pursue their private interests. Abuse of office, unlawful
lobbying in which they take part, presence of conflicts of interest when performing their duties
etc. are often a reality in Slovenia.
When responding to allegations or even proof laid down before them the MPs usually resort
to the old "I've been chosen by the people and only they can recall me." argument or the
other also very popular argument "Until proven guilty in front of court I'm innocent.".
Of course, the fact that the legislation does not allow for any recall of an MP and the fact that
one will lose his or her office only if he or she is convicted and sentenced to more than 6
months imprisonment minimizes any possible influence voters and the public in general
might have on the MPs. The only way of sanctioning an MP for any unethical or unlawful
behaviour that usually goes unpunished anyway is by not giving a vote to that particular
candidate at the next elections which proves to be inefficient, also due to the elections
system we have in Slovenia.