PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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Figure 8.1: Sources of Parliamentary Reform Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union Facing the future I 185 ments communicate both internally and with their various publics. Typical also are changing TV technologies, with their consequences for parliamentary broadcasting. ■ International influences. A common feature mentioned in the previous chapter is the way in which economic globalisation exposes the limitations in parliamentary oversight of the executive. For EU candidate members, the need to harmonise legislation in preparation for membership puts enormous pressure on the legislative process and to streamline its procedures. For all countries there is the influence of a global democratic culture, to be discussed below. ■ Peer-group example. This is the influence of practices in other parliaments, whether through bilateral relations and visits, regional networks or membership organisations such as the IPU, ASGP, CPA, and so on. Among the intra-parliamentary conditions that are conducive to reform are: ■ The recognition of procedural limitations, as these affect parliament’s own internal effectiveness, and in the light of a changing extra-parliamentary environment.
186 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ■ Reform initiators. These might be key individuals such as a particularly active Speaker or President, or a parliamentary group, or a reform-oriented procedure committee or secretariat. The institutionalisation of the reform process as an ongoing element of parliamentary practice through a permanent committee is a feature mentioned by many parliaments. ■ Support mobilisers and implementers. The need to mobilise wider parliamentary support for reforms can itself influence their scope and content, as can also the process of their implementation. How these different influences interact in any particular parliament and at any particular juncture is of course enormously variable, but many of them will be present in any successful reform process. Of special significance is what might be termed the dynamic of democratisation, which merits a section to itself. The dynamic of democratisation The submissions from parliaments for this study show that all are subject to the influence of a strong democratising current, whether flowing from the logic of their own democratic evolution, or from the global environment, or a combination of the two. However, the character and scope of their reforms is dependent on the particular stage reached in the democratising process, and their particular trajectory in doing so. Some countries are only in the early stages of a transition towards democracy; some are in the process of consolidating a recently effected democratic transition, in a manner that is in some respects influenced by the character of the former regime; others where democracy has been long established are under an impetus to deepen their democracy, or else to resist a process of creeping sclerosis. Although different countries will be facing different challenges, however, common to them all is the centrality of parliament to the process of democratic reform, as the following examples from our returns will show, and as has been particularly underlined in the return from Gabon. In Viet Nam the National Assembly, while subject to dominant-party rule, reports an increased professionalisation of parliament and a greater pluralism and representativeness of views within it, as evidence of a democratic current at work: The increase in the number of deputies in general and full-time members in particular has clearly shown the view of the Viet Nam Party and
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Electoral systems A representative
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■ the fixed office; An accessible
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An effective parliament (I): The na
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that the Senate, the House of Commo
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consideration of a bill more effect
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Oversight through parliamentary que
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PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

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