A constitutional institution, constitutional body or constitutional organ is a government institution created by a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. As these institutions derives its powers, duties and responsibilities directly from the constitution, which is harder to be amended by

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

compared to sub-constitutional laws, their status is rather more stable and independent than institutions created by sub-constitutional laws.

By country

Role of the constitutional institutions inside government reflects each constitution's national context and identity.

Germany

According to the German constitution, only five institutions are regarded as constitutional institutions () in German federal government, reflecting classic structure for

separation of powers The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state (polity), state power (usually Legislature#Legislation, law-making, adjudication, and Executive (government)#Function, execution) and requires these operat ...

; ' Bundesrat' and '

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

' of German legislature,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and Cabinet of German executive, and

Federal Constitutional Court The Federal Constitutional Court ( ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inception with the beginning of the post-W ...

of German judiciary.

South Africa

Modern constitution such as

South African constitution The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the human rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of th ...

creates various government institutions directly by itself, which has similar role as

independent agency A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous jurisdiction over some area of human activity in a licensing and regu ...

in classic government structure. This so called ' Chapter nine institutions' of South Africa are explained as constitutional attempt to guarantee accountability of government, yet there are also worries as these new 'constitutionally independent' agencies can create tensions inside separation of powers between traditional branches and institutions of South African government. These modern independent agencies created directly by constitution sometimes fails to achieve its expected role, as their level of institutional independence varies according to specific political situations.For example,

Election Commission of Malaysia The Election Commission of Malaysia (; Jawi: ), abbreviated SPR or EC, is a commission set up for ensuring fair and equitable operations in undertaking the elections in Malaysia. The agency falls under the purview of the Prime Minister's Depa ...

is often criticized for failure to achieve independent and neutral role as constitutional institution. See

Examples of constitutional institutions

* Constitutional body (India) * Constitutional institutions (Italy) ** Institutions of constitutional importance (Italy) * Chapter nine institutions (

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) *

Constitutional organizations of Thailand The constitutional organizations of Thailand (; ) are executive branch agencies of the Government of Thailand, that exist and function outside the List of Cabinet Ministries of Thailand, Cabinet Ministries of Thailand. Most of these agencies were ...

Types of constitutional institutions

Any of the following institutions may be established by constitutions. Constitutions have become increasingly detailed since the

third wave of democratization In political science, the waves of democracy or waves of democratization are major surges of democracy that have occurred in history. Although the term appears at least as early as 1887, it was popularized by Samuel P. Huntington, a political s ...

, as additional institutions have been added to deepen the separation of powers. Branches of government: * Legislative chambers *

Executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

entities, including: **

Heads of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

** Institutions with minimum prescribed qualifications or a mandatory consultative status, such as attorneys or advocates general,

national security councils A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

, economic and social councils, and privy councils ** Public forces such as the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

and national police. Their duties and

command hierarchy A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

may be codified in order to specify civilian control, service obligations, a clear

monopoly on violence In political philosophy, a monopoly on violence or monopoly on the legal use of force is the property of a polity that is the only entity in its jurisdiction to legitimately use force, and thus the supreme authority of that area. While the mon ...

, and/or separation of military and police roles. A few constitutions, such as those of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, establish specialist law enforcement agencies. * Supreme and

constitutional courts A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

Other independent institutions whose officials enjoy security of tenure: *

Election commissions An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

Supreme audit institutions A supreme audit institution is an independent national-level institution which conducts audits of government activities. Most supreme audit institutions are established in their country's constitution, and their mandate is further refined in nation ...

* Civil service commissions * Councils of the judiciary * Labor courts * Public ministries and directors of public prosecutions *

Ombudsmen An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

and human rights commissions

Notes and references