Chapter 7: Policy Making & Legislating §

(F) Day of the week: Wednesday Class: IS307 Created Time: May 12, 2021 8:43 PM Database: Class Notes Database Date: May 12, 2021 8:43 PM Days Till Date: Passed Last Edited Time: August 3, 2021 2:12 PM Provided Materials: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rFwsoG9vtCQv4DD8SpJJwXiUtjpV0k7L Type: Seminar

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Comparative Governments study relations Executive $\leftrightarrows$ Legislative bodies

• Check and balances

Problem Legislature isn’t as powerful as Executive anymore

What are the main functions of the legislative body?

1. Making laws between executives and legislatures §

government divided executive & legislative to:

• depend on each other
• limit each other
• powers are mixed: work together

📃 Legislation is the body of laws that have been passed by the legislature. Legislating is thus the act of initiating, debating and passing such laws

Legislation is passed when executive & legislative agrees

Modern government doesn’t have checks and balances anymore.

• Executive is the prominent power
• Legislative is ‘just a rubber stamp’

2. Reasons why executive power is increasing §

1. Government Complexity: The need for Executive as the single center of coordinating and control to manage different agencies, departments, and units of governments working together.

   • the growing interdependent world creates more complex problems for the government to handle.
     • Nuclear power
     • The environment
     • The economy

2. Delegated Legislation: as laws have many circumstances and changes quickly, laws have to be written very generally. Interpretation and details of cases has to be decided by executives.

   📃 Delegated legislation Law or decrees made by ministers, not by legislatures, though in accordance with powers granted to them by the legislative body.

3. Organization Advantage of Executive:

   • Small in number: easier for common interest, react quickly
   • Well-funded: work in presidential and prime ministerial offices
   • Held highly by Political leaders: can appeal to public

4. Mass Media: executive use mass media for as much publicity as possible on TV. While legislature is too large and divided to act with a single voice.

5. Party Organization: Strong political party → strong executive & weaker legislative

6. Emergency power: executive need to respond quickly and effectively to threats of pandemics, natural disasters and terrorism

Supposed Evidence for Increasing power of executive §

From Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Parliaments of the World (New York: Facts on File, 1992).

• Most bills are introduced by executives
• Most bills introduced by executives are accepted by legislative and become law

$\uparrow$ Explained by ‘The Law of Anticipated Reactions’ - Karl Friedrich

“Both executive and legislative will sound out what is likely to be accepted and adjust their proposals accordingly as to not waste time.”

4. The functions of legislatures §

4.1. The representation of public opinion §

Main assembly is directly elected to reflect public opinion

• Reflect party political opinion
• Reflect political interests of specific groups

Legislative must represent the main clusters of public opinions (Interest aggregation) and express them in policy debates (Interest articulation).

• Proportional representative
• 2/3 majority votes

📃 Interest aggregation Sorting the great variety of political attitudes and opinions on a political issue, to reduce it to a more simple, clear-cut and agreed ‘package’ of opinion. Interest articulation The expression of political demands in order to influence public policy.

Criticism

Government positions are not representative of actual people

• the four M(s)
  • middle-class
  • middle-aged
  • majority group
  • males
• professionalized
• require political life
• high education

Objection

• politicians can represent the views of social groups rather than their own
• politicians represent views of political parties

4.2. The legitimation of government and the political system §

Legitimation is ensured by a legislative that

• Is elected directly
• Meets regularly for public political debates

📃 Legitimation The process of making something morally acceptable, proper, or right in the eyes of the general public.

Peaceful opposition: It Means those who oppose government will accept its election and can run for legitimacy themselves next term

4.3. Legislative in Law making §

Don’t initiate bills, What Legislative can do to bills:

• consider
• change details
• throw out bills
• change their fundamental intent

Debates & readings in both chambers swinging back and forth between legislative and executive until its accepted.

4.4. Legislative on executive scrutiny of the administration of the state §

Legislative is supposed to keep executive from abusing power using:

• Examining government bills
• Veto power: for some legislative bodies, if against constitution…
• Have approving executive appointments (vote of confidence) to nominate cabinet members… to represent government
• Presidents and PM must explain their actions
• Public Debates let the public criticize and scrutinize executive points
• Veto of no confidence/impeachment
• Committees: examine for scrutiny of executive

5. The reform of legislatures: legislative committees §

Create effective and powerful legislative committees to make sure no legislative oversight, abuse of power, over see performance of government

• Unbiased Small committee (15-30)
• Experience & technical expertise
• Bureaucratic support & time

📃 Legislative oversight The role of the legislature that involves the scrutiny or supervision of other branches of government, especially the executive and the public bureaucracy.

Theories of democratic institutions: §

Diversity of formal democratic arrangements turn into a few general repeating patterns

• Constitutional documents fall into four specific parts
• Relations executive $\leftrightarrows$ legislative relations into presidential, semi-presidential, parliamentary
• Organizing territorial government: federal and unitary

Arendt Lijphart (1936–) study found democracies fall into **

• Majoritarian: give unconstrained power to the majority and the party that represent them
• Consensus: diversify power and limit its uses
• Critiques
  • too broad and general to apply to all cases, many exceptions
  • Variations of both with or without some features

Majoritarian Democracy §

• Give concentrated power to who holds majority in legislative assembly
• Fuses executive and legislative powers
• Constitution can be changed for majority vote in legislature
• Most often unitary state, also control units of governments below

Ex: United Kingdoms

Consensus Democracy §

Shares power

• Create coalition of parties in government
• Separate & balanced executive and legislative
• Often federal, decentralized but given governmental autonomy to states
• Balanced bicameral legislative assemblies
• Have judicial review of political and constitutional matters
• constitutional inflexibility
• Have proportional elections, multi-party systems, corporatist interest group systems, and independent central banks.

Between Majoritarian and Consensus which performs better?

Consensus Democracy because:

• Representation: It includes and represent as many group as possible
• Check and Balance: The government share and separate power between the main parties and between the two representative assemblies
• Accountability: It reinforces the rights of all citizens by giving the courts the right to review constitutional matters and public policy