Parliamentary Rules of Procedure - European Parliament - Europa

The latter often entails one of the parliamentary
houses being composed of representatives of
the smaller tier of governance (e.g. the German
Bundesrat, comprised of cabinet ministers of the
state governments, or the Belgian senate, elected
mostly by the sub-national entities in Belgium).
(4) Lastly the context in which parliaments operate
may also vary according to historic and constitutional
traditions depending on whether the
current system emerged through emancipation
of parliament from feudal times by successive
victories against monarchs (most notably the
British Parliament) or whether it came into being
through a constituting act following a revolution
or national independence.
Thus, parliamentary rules of procedure must fit
within the context of the constitution and suit
the political culture concerned.
The three core functions of any parliament, to legislate,
to control and to represent must be adequately
regulated by the rules, whereas upholding
these rules should be done in such a manner as to
allow the full realisation of these functions. Unfortunately,
this is not always the case. Findings on
political tolerance, as published by the inter-parliamentary
Union1 , indicate that, although there
is a strong support for political tolerance, there
1. 15.09.2009, international Day of Democracy, a study of 24 nations, iPU
8
is also a widespread perception of a serious lack
of political tolerance in practice.
Fair representation of women, minorities and
indigenous people is considered insufficient and
the views of these groups therefore risk being
inadequately reflected within the formal political
system. Freedom of expression is viewed by a very
large majority of countries polled as very important,
but people in most states express concern
that opposition parties do not get a fair chance
to influence government policies.
in fact, in nearly every country surveyed, respondents
perceive that their legislators have limited
freedom to express views that differ from their
political party. interestingly, there appears to be
no meaningful, overall difference in this regard
between public opinion in countries with proportional
electoral systems, where candidates are
elected from a party list, and those with plurality
voting systems where candidates are elected to
represent a specific constituency.
clearly, parliamentary rules on their own will not
have the capacity to modify substantially the deficiencies
of a given political environment. However,
adherence to fair and respectful rules will positively
impact the political climate of a country
and its citizens. all political parties and move-