PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

118 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
tial and parliamentary systems is more clearly marked. In the former the
typical challenge may be to achieve effective cooperation between legislature
and executive; in the latter the challenge is rather to achieve a more robust
organisational independence or autonomy.
What exactly does parliamentary ‘autonomy’ entail? A report by the
Association of Secretary Generals of Parliament (ASGP) in 1998 defines
autonomy in this context as ‘on the one hand non-dependence and non-subordination
of Assemblies in relation to the Executive, and, on the other, the
possibility of the Assembly freeing itself at least partially from the rules of
ordinary law so as to follow instead its own regulatons.’ It notes that ‘in almost
all states, the principle of the autonomy of Parliament is formally recognised
in the constitutional texts….dealing with the separation of powers.’ And it
concludes that the general trend is to make this principle increasingly effective
in practice. (Michel Couderc, ‘The principle of parliamentary autonomy’,
Constitutional and Parliamentary Information, No. 176, 1998)
Implementing the principle of autonomy in practice involves a number of
different aspects, as set out in the submission to the present study by the
Slovenian Parliament:
■ parliamentary responsibility for its own staffing;
■ control over its own budget;
■ organisation of its own business.
As to the first of these, submissions from the Indian and Canadian
Parliaments respectively underline the importance of parliamentary staff being
independent of the central public or civil service:
India: To effectively carry out its functions within the framework of the
separation of powers it is essential that Parliament should have an
independent Secretariat. With the underlying objective of ensuring the
concept of executive and administrative accountability to Parliament,
separate and independent Secretariats for the two Houses of
Parliament have been provided for in Article 98 of the Constitution
of India.
Canada: A Parliament’s effectiveness is in large measure a reflection
of the mechanisms and resources that ensure its independence and
autonomy. The operational independence of the Canadian Parliament
is provided for in the Constitution and by legislation that guarantees