PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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that the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament each have access to a non-partisan professional staff distinct from the public service……While public servants in the bureaucracy may move from one department to another through the course of their careers, parliamentary staff tend to make their career serving Parliament in their respective institution. This model of a professional parliamentary service with its own organisation and career structure is now becoming widely accepted, in parliamentary and presidential systems alike. It recognises that serving parliament is a distinctive activity where, given the nature of party competition, the norms of non-partisanship and professional discretion are at a special premium. Parliamentary autonomy here also includes the development of independent legal counsel to advise parliament on the legal dimensions of government policy, as well as on legislative drafting. The Israeli Knesset, for example, has its legal services concentrated in a single department, which deals with all the different legal aspects of parliamentary business. Budgetary control An effective parliament (I): The national level I 119 A second aspect of a parliament’s independence is control over its own budget. The importance of this is emphasized in a statement of principles on parliament-executive relations made at an IPU regional seminar on parliament and the budgetary process: In accordance with the fundamental principle of the separation of powers, the internal budget of the Parliament should be drawn up under the sole responsibility of the House, and subsequently presented to the Executive to be incorporated into the national budget. The Executive is not to judge the appropriateness of the resources requested by Parliament to carry out its functions. (General Report presented by Mr. Lahaou Touré (Mali), General Rapporteur, Bamako (Mali), 1-3 November 2001) This principle has variable application in practice. On one side is a parliament such as that of France, whose financial autonomy is described as ‘absolute, both in respect of the way the budget is drafted and as regards the voting and implementation procedures’. On the other side are a number of new parliaments, especially in Africa, described in the ASGP report as having ‘the legitimate aspiration’ to free themselves from government supervision, in particularly from the Ministry of Finance.
120 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Control over business Equally relevant to a parliament’s autonomy is control over its own business, and over the allocation of time between different types of business and between different parliamentary groups. In the traditional Westminster parliamentary system business was typically organised through informal arrangements between the Leader of the House (a Cabinet Minister) and opposition leaders and their whips. Such arrangements are now increasingly being formalised through a parliamentary business committee, on which all political groups are represented, and which is chaired by the Assembly President or Speaker. As an example, the chairmanship of the Business Committee of the Samoan Parliament has recently been transferred from the Prime Minister to the Speaker. Under this kind of arrangement the role of ‘Leader of the House’, if there is one, becomes more narrowly defined as ‘leader of government business in the chamber’. This evolution took place early in the life of the Indian Lok Sabha, with the creation of a Business Advisory Committee, whose members are nominated by the Speaker as ex officio Chair. The function of the Committee is to recommend time that should be allotted for discussion on such government, legislative and other business as the Speaker in consultation with the Leader of the House may direct to be referred to the Committee. After the report of the Committee is agreed by the House, the allocation of time in respect of bills and other business takes effect as if it were an order of the House. In the South African Parliament there is a Programme Committee for each House, meeting weekly, and a joint Programme Committee for both Houses which has the responsibility for preparing the annual programme for Parliament, including the legislative programme. This Committee allocates time for the Executive’s legislative and other business, and sets deadlines by which the Executive must introduce bills in Parliament, subject to fast-tracking in exceptional circumstances according to predetermined criteria. Within this agreed allocation, the Leader of Government Business, who is ‘responsible for the affairs of the national executive in Parliament’, takes responsibility for programming all parliamentary business initiated by the executive and for the attendance of relevant Cabinet members. These Programme Committees typically take decisions by consensus. In presidential systems, the issue may be less of ensuring adequate independence from the executive in the planning of the legislature’s business, and more one of achieving effective coordination between the two branches of
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Electoral systems A representative
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and also to allow for increased par
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strengthening of both legislative a
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As regards the practicability and c
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3. Technology assessment. This has
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Australia Austria Belarus Belgium B
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Organization’s programmes aimed a
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MS. MARTA LAGOS CRUZ-COKE Executive
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MS. DULCE MARIA SAURI RIANCHO Membe
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Commonwealth Parliamentary Associat
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Non-governmental organisations Cent
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Index Note: Page numbers in bold in
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types of, 8, 15-17, 69 voter partic
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PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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