Learning Objectives:
After studying this unit you should be able to:
- Describe the basic types of political systems, and understand how they can influence the ways a parliament carries out its functions;
- Describe the three basic types of electoral systems;
- Describe the advantages each electoral system provides;
- Describe the formal powers your parliament possesses;
- Discuss how effectively your parliament uses its powers;
- Be able to describe the technical capacities of your legislature, and explain how they impact on the level of work your parliament carries out.
Introduction
Have you ever considered why legislatures in different nations conduct themselves so differently? Why, for example, do representatives in one nation spend so much time, money, and effort reaching out to citizens, while others seem to have very little contact with them? Why do some legislatures make absolutely no change to the budget proposed by the executive, while others seem free to rewrite it? Why is party discipline so strong in some legislatures, and so weak in others? In this chapter we will consider how several factors influence the ways parliaments carry out their functions, and try to provide at least a partial answer to questions such as these.
The five factors we will consider are:
- The type of political system;
- The type of electoral system through which representatives are elected;
- The legislature’s formal powers;
- The combination of the political environment within which the legislature functions, and the political will of legislators to exert parliament’s powers; and
- The technical capacity of the parliament.
Two quick points before we proceed: The first is that while these factors influence and help explain the ways a given legislature carries out its basic functions of representation, lawmaking, and oversight, no single factor determines legislative behavior. The second is that the powers and performance of legislatures are not static. Remember the example of the Mexican Congress in Unit 1, which over a period of a few years became the dominant lawmaking power in Mexico. The balance of power is fluid in every political system, with legislatures sometimes gaining, sometimes losing power relative to other actors.
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