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MongoliaConstitutional Framework
The Constitution was adopted on July 6, 1960, by the People's
Great Hural. It was the third constitution promulgated since the
revolution of 1921. The first constitution was passed by the
First National Great Hural on November 26, 1924. It abolished the
system of monarchial theocracy, described the legislative
consolidation of state power, provided a basic statement of
socioeconomic and political rights and freedoms for the people,
and espoused a national program that would bypass the capitalist
stage of development in the course of promoting fundamental
social transformations in order to bring about socialism in
Mongolia
(see Revolutionary Transformation, 1921-24
, ch. 1).
The second constitution, adopted on June 30, 1940, took the
Soviet constitution of 1936 as the model. As Mongolian premier
Horloyn Choybalsan reported to the Eighth National Great Hural in
1940: "We are guided in our activity by the experience of the
great country of socialism, the experience of the Soviet Union.
Consequently, only the constitution of the Soviet Union may be a
model for us in drafting our new constitution." In subsequent
revisions to the 1940 Mongolian constitution in 1944, 1949, 1952,
and 1959, disparities between the Mongolian and Soviet
constitutions were reduced even further.
Under the 1940 constitution, elections were restricted--
"enemies of the regime" could not vote--and indirect; lower
bodies elected higher levels. Constitutional amendments
introduced after 1944 changed this system, however, by restoring
political rights, including the right of suffrage throughout the
society; by instituting a unitary hierarchy of directly elected
representative bodies; by reorganizing electoral districts; by
replacing voting by the show of hands at open meetings with
voting by secret ballot; and by abolishing the National Little
Hural--the Standing Body of the National Great Hural--
transferring its functions to the National Great Hural, which was
renamed People's Great Hural in 1951. The regime's justification
for making these changes was that Mongolia had already realized
many sociopolitical achievements in its advance toward socialism.
Therefore, it became historically correct to introduce reforms
that had been adopted in the more advanced society of the Soviet
Union.
The Constitution adopted in 1960 includes a lengthy preamble
that acclaims the successes of the revolution and notes the
importance of the "fraternal socialist assistance of the Soviet
Union" to growth and development in Mongolia. The preamble
clarifies the dominant role of the Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party as the "guiding and directing force in
society," using as its guide the "all-conquering Marxist-Leninist
theory." A renewed commitment is made to completing the
construction of a socialist society and culture, and eventually,
to building a communist society. Enunciated foreign policy goals
describe a diplomacy based on the principles of peaceful
coexistence and proletarian internationalism.
The points outlined in the preamble are explained more fully
in the main body of the Constitution. Compared with its 1940
predecessor, the 1960 Constitution is more succinct. The 1940
document had been divided into twelve chapters. The 1960
Constitution clusters most of the same content into four general
sections: socioeconomic structure, state structure, basic rights
and duties of citizens, and miscellaneous provisions. Within
these categories, the articles are compressed into ten chapters,
compared with twelve chapters in the 1940 constitution.
In the first general section, the socialist system, rooted in
the socialist ownership of national wealth and the means of
production, is presented as the economic basis of society. Areas
protected under law include private ownership of one's income and
savings, housing, subsidiary husbandry, personal and household
articles, as well as the right to an inheritance. These legal
guarantees, however, are subject to the qualification that "it
shall be prohibited to use the right of personal ownership to the
detriment of state and social interests."
The second and longest general section defines the state
structure, following that laid down in the 1940 constitution, as
amended in 1959. It details the nature, composition, and duties
of all state organs of power, including the executive, the
legislative, and the judicial at both the national and local
levels.
In the third general section, the fundamental rights and
duties of citizens are grouped together, a departure from the
previous constitutions. The rights promised in this basic law and
the actual experience of Mongolians in daily life, however, are
often at variance. Among the basic rights guaranteed are equality
irrespective of sex, racial or national affiliations, faith,
social origin, and status. These were overlooked in practice, to
the extent that male
Khalkha (see Glossary) Mongols occupied most
of the elite government positions, and religious practice has
been an impediment to career advancement in an atheistic MarxistLeninist society. In addition, citizens are guaranteed freedom of
speech, press, assembly, meeting, demonstration, and processions,
but with the restriction that the activities must be practiced
"in accordance with the interests of the working people and with
a view to developing and strengthening the state system of the
Mongolian People's Republic."
A list of duties begins with the exhortation that "every
citizen of the Mongolian People's Republic shall be obliged to:
show dedication to the cause of building socialism; maintain the
priority of the interests of society and the state vis-à-vis
private interests; safeguard the concept of communal socialist
property; and fulfill all civic duties, and demand the same of
other citizens." Other duties involve supporting international
friendship and worker solidarity "under the leadership of the
Soviet Union," and teaching and practicing good social values.
The Constitution can be amended by the People's Great Hural
with a majority of not less than two-thirds of the delegate
votes, a system that has produced frequent revision. Perhaps the
most novel feature of the Constitution is contained in its
concluding article, unique among socialist constitutions. Article
94 allows the gradual repeal of the constitutional provisions:
"The Constitution . . . will be repealed when the need for the
existence of the state, which is the principal instrument for
building socialism and communism, disappears, when it will be
replaced by a communist association of working people."
The official seal of Mongolia also has been revised and
reflects aspirations of becoming an industrialized society.
Furthermore, the Constitution says that the state arms of
Mongolia "shall reflect the essence of the state and the idea of
friendship of peoples and shall show the national and economic
peculiarities of the country." Accordingly, the official seal now
consists of a circle framed by sheaves of wheat, fastened
together by a machine cog-wheel, replacing animal heads that
denoted a pastoral country. In the center is a figure of a
"working man on horseback galloping upward toward the sun--
communism," in place of a herdsman holding a lariat and galloping
toward the rising sun.
Data as of June 1989
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