Learning Objectives:
What do Parliaments do?

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• Understand and describe the representation roles of parliaments and parliamentarians;
  
  
• Describe the representation features of your own parliament;
  
  
• Understand and describe the lawmaking and budget making roles of parliaments, including your own;
  
  
• Understand and describe the role of parliaments in conducting oversight of the executive branch;
  
  
• Describe how oversight is conducted in your own parliament, and be ready to suggest some ways it might be done more effectively.

Representation

Throughout the world citizens tend to identify with parliament members in more personal ways than they do other public officials.  Constituents talk of “my MP”, “my congressperson”, “my senator”, “my deputy”, or “my representative.”  One does not often hear people speak of “my president”, “my judge”, or “my bureaucrat.”  Unlike chief executives, who represent entire nations, or bureaucrats and judges, whose responsibility it is to carry out and interpret the law impartially toward all citizens, legislators are responsible for representing the differences in society, and for bringing those differences into the policy-making arena.  These differences may be rooted in geography, ethnicity, religion, political identification, gender, or other characteristics, but MPs are expected to represent them at the national level. 

Representation involves more than simply living in a specific area in the country, or having characteristics in common with those one represents (e.g., political beliefs, religion, gender,).  It involves listening to constituents and groups and making decisions and exercising influence on their behalf.  Political scientist Nelson Polsby calls parliaments the “nerve endings” of the polity (Polsby 1975).  They are the branch of government closest to people, and MPs, and more than any other officials at the national level, they need to be aware of the needs of constituents, and are expected to respond to those needs. 

Transparency is important to representation.  Democratic parliaments are the most transparent and accessible of the three branches of government.  Most parliaments open their plenary sessions to the public and to the press, and a growing number allow citizens to attend committee meetings.  South Africa’s parliament even publishes committee schedules on the Internet, as do several others.  Daily news reports cover events in parliament, and an increasing number of parliaments televise their plenary sessions giving citizens the opportunity to view their parliament in action.  The Congress of Peru makes its internal budget, progress on spending, salary scales, vendor contracts, and an evaluation of the impact of its budget available to the world via the Internet. 

Not only are parliaments more open and accessible than other government branches, MPs themselves are more accessible.  In many systems, the legislature’s representation function involves constituent services, (i.e., helping citizens cut through government bureaucracies to receive their benefits, assisting with special problems), and accessing government funds for projects to benefit the constituency, such as bridges, clinics, water systems, schools, etc.  Parliamentarians become well known and help ensure their re-election by providing such services.