Week 6

Legislatures
Dr Fredrick
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Weeks
• Democratic rules • Legislatures
and • Executive
democratisation • Constitutions and
• Autocratic rules Courts
and democratic • Subnational
backsliding governments
• Political culture
• Comparative
methods
Overview

• Types of
legislatures
• Organizational
structure
• Functions
• Assess their power
Institutions
• Are the rules of the game that shape human
behavior
• Reduce uncertainty
• Are continuously evolving
• Typically change incrementally
• Explain the path of historical
change (North 1990)
• ‘When the legislative and
executive powers are united in
the same person, or in the same
body of magistrates, there can
be no liberty... there is no
liberty if the power of judging
is not separated from the
legislative and executive...
there would be an end to
everything, if the same man or
the same body... were to
exercise those three powers’
(Montesquieu 1748)
 Legislatur
es
• Legislature - ‘an organized body having the authority
to make laws for a political unit’ (Kreppel 2017: 118)
• Legislative tasks - representation, deliberation,
legislation, expenditure approval and oversight of
the executive.
• Congress, parliament – not to be used interchangeably
• Parliaments exist in fused-powers – usually
parliamentary systems
• Congresses exist in separation-of-powers – typically
presidential systems
Systems of
government

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union

Organisational
Structure
Unicameral Bicameral
• About 60% of global • Upper and lower chamber
legislatures have single • Lower chamber usually
chambers more powerful (budgetary
• Sweden, Iceland. powers), whilst upper
• Many post-communist chamber scrutinizes,
(Lithuania, Slovakia, delays.
Moldova) and post- • Often found in larger, more
colonial states opted to diverse, and federal
have one chamber only political systems.
(Egypt, Vietnam). • Weak bicameralism(UK,
France) vs. strong
bicameralism (US, Italy).
The internal organizational
structure of
legislatures

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union

Method of selection of the upper
chamber

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union

2020
 Deliberatio Committees
n • Organized internally on the basis of
• Deliberation takes the form of
general discussion in the chamber committees.

• Key issues discussed in the floor of • Can be few or many, ad hoc or

the chamber institutionalized

• Debate are an arena for national • Permanency: Offers stability if

political discussion, forming part of institutionalized but may limit
a continuous election campaign. specialization.
• Specialization – mirror the executive
• The mood of the House, as revealed
in debate, is often more significant branch – with committees for each
than the vote which follows portfolio

• Temporary committees – to react to

different events and crisis

• If legislation is fully vetted before being

 FUNCTIONS

A) Representation
(I)
Pitkin (1967)
1. Formalistic Representation:
The institutional arrangements that precede and initiate
representation. Formal representation has two dimensions:
-Authorization: the means by which representative obtains their
standing/ office (e.g. elections).

-Accountability: ability of constituents to punish their

representative for failing to act in accordance with their wishes
(e.g. voting an elected official out of office) or the responsiveness
of the representative to the constituents.
 Representation
(II)
2. Symbolic Representation:
• The ways that a
representative “stands for”
the represented —

• Fair and effective

representation of voters by
the representative.
 Representation (III)

Descriptive Representation:
•The extent to which a
representativeresembles those
being represented.
•Descriptive representation - should
resemble and be in some way similar to
those represented.
•It is simply a ‘descriptive likeness’ (Pitkin
1967: 92).
•For instance, the representation of women
and minorities
•But does looking alike come
with sharedinterests and experiences?
•E.g A Latino representative who might
inadvertently represent straight Latinos at
the expense of gay and lesbian Latinos
(Young 1986: 350).
Representation
(IV)
4. Substantive Representation
• Legislatures advocate on behalf
of certain groups.
• For example, acting on the
expressed wishes of citizens, or
acting according to what the
representatives themselves
judge is in the best interests of
citizens.

• One can assess a representative

by the extent to which policy
outcomes advanced by a
representative serve “the best
interests” of their constituents.
 Representative V

Collective representation
• Ideally members should represent the interests of
all voters, not just those in the districts they
represent.

• National interests over partisanship

B)
Legislation
• The legislative procedures are explicitly deliberative, involving several
readings (debates) as the bill moves from the floor to committee and back
again.
• In bicameral legislatures, different versions passed by each chamber must be
reconciled.
• But legislation is rarely the function in which legislatures exert the greatest
influence, as effective control over legislation in most liberal democracies
rests with the government.
• Initiation depends on the system of government and type of legislature.
• Consultation, delay, veto, or amendment are other powerful tools that
depend on the system of government and type of legislature.
• Sometimes bills pass through the legislature without being designed, or
even
transformed
• Parliaments have become law-influencing legislatures rather than law-
 Different legislative
procedures
Australi
a
The
U.S.A.

Source: Parliamentary Education Office Source:

n.d. https://guides.nyu.edu
Different powers
• Judged by their ability to directly impact the policy process

• In some legislatures, all proposals must be formally

initiated by the legislature (the USA), while in others the
parliament has no formal ability to independently initiate
the proposal (the European Union)

• In Western European countries between 80-90% of

successful legislative proposals are initiated by the
executive.

• In Britain, the governing party has historically dominated

law-making (secure government majorities mean that
legislative proposals are hardly ever overturned).
C) Control (I) - Budget
control
• Budget Control - nearly all legislature require legislative
approval of national budgets and tax policies

• Powerful tool and influence government policy

• For the legislature to possess the power of the purse,

Wehner (2006) suggests they must have the ability to
consider and amend the budget.

• In the US, the Congress remains central to budget-making -

all money spent by executive departments must be
approved by Congress
Control (II)
Oversight
Oversight (accountability) - monitoring
and limiting the power of the
executive
• Tools:
• question time (usually in Parliaments),
• inquiries,
• hearings (usually ad hoc to investigate on specific
topics),
• investigative committees (higher order issues)
• might ask individual agencies to give them reports on
specific issues
Control (III) Making and
breaking governments
• Between elections – the main task is to monitor the
executive
• Control is limited in separation-of-power systems where
the policy agenda is not subject of legislative control
• Impeachment or vote of no confidence rare and generally a
complex procedure

• In fused powers - policy control is explicitly stated

• The government may be removed from office
 • Separation of powers

Legislature • Legislative elections have no

effect on the
s identity of the government
• The main function of
in legislatures (e.g. US Congress)
presidenti in presidential governments is
to legislate (Laver 2006)
al systems • Elections at the national level
are about electing
representatives to the
legislature.
 • The most important political job for
the ‘legislature’ in a parliamentary
system (and a semi-presidential
system) is not legislating, but making
Parliaments and breaking of governments (Laver,
in •
2006, 122)
Appointment and dismissal of
parliamentar governments
• Parliamentary elections at the
y national level are more about
systems •
‘electing’ governments
The executive both derives from, and
is constitutionally responsible to the
parliament
Presidential and Parliamentary
Governments
Presidential Parliamentary
The Head President Prime Minister
of
governme
nt
The Head of President Monarch/
State President
Executive/ Fixed Vote of no
legislati ve term,
relations seperation confidenc
of powers e,
‘fusion’
 Separation of powers?
• Describing relationship between the president and
Congress as a separation of powers is misleading.

• It’s a separation of institutions, but they share authority

and seek to influence each other, but neither is in a
situation to dictate.

• The relationship between parliaments

and governments is completely inversed
nowadays (Gallagher, Laver and Mair
2011)
Assessing their power and
stability
• Their degree of autonomy depends on:

• Institutional independence: the power to elect

and dismiss the executive branch serves to
reduce the independent policy influence of a
legislature

• Member independence: the greater the party

leadership’s control over a member’s re-
election, the smaller the member’s autonomy
• (Kreppel 2017)
Conclusion
s
• Legislatures engage in a variety of tasks including
representing citizen interests and participating in the
policy-making process

• Most legislatures in democratic systems perform all

these functions to some extent

• The emphasis placed on the various

roles will vary between legislatures –
especially between congresses and parliaments
 References

• Gallagher, Michael, Michael Laver, and Peter Mair (2011). Representative government in modern
Europe. McGraw-Hill.
• Griglio, Elena (2020). Parliamentary Oversight under the Covid-19 Emergency: Striving Against
Executive Dominance. The Theory and Practice of Legislation 8(1-2): 49-70.
• Inter-Parliamentary Union. Parliaments of the World. Available at:
http://www.ipu.org/english/home.htm
• Kreppel, Amie (2017). ‘Legislatures’. In D Caramani (ed.) Comparative Politics. Oxford University
Press.
• Laver, Michael (2006). ‘Legislatures and Parliaments in Comparative Context’. In B Weingast and D
Wittman (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford University Press.
• Montesquieu, Charles (1748). The Spirit of the Laws, Paris.
• North, Douglas (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic performance. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
• Norton, Philip (1990) Parliaments: A Framework for Analysis. West European Politics
• Pitkin, Hanna F. (1967). The concept of representation. Univ of California Press.
• Wehner, Joachim (2006). Assessing the power of the purse: an index of legislative budget institutions.
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