Legislature


A legislature is a deliberative assembly that holds the legal authority to make law and exercise political oversight within a political entity such as a state, nation, or city. Legislatures are among the principal institutions of state, typically contrasted with the executive and judicial institutions. They may exist at different levels of governance—national, subnational, local, or supranational—such as the European Parliament.
In most political systems, the laws enacted by legislatures are referred to as primary legislation. Legislatures may also perform oversight, budgetary, and representative functions. Members of a legislature, called legislators, may be elected, indirectly chosen, or appointed, and legislatures may be unicameral, bicameral, or multicameral, depending on their constitutional design.
There are several types of legislatures, reflecting the different constitutional principles of power on which states are organized. These types illustrate how legislatures differ not only in structure and function, but also in their constitutional relationship to other state institutions and in the theories of sovereignty and power that underpin them. The most common types are parliaments, which operate under the fusion of powers between the executive and the legislature; congresses, which function under the separation of powers between independent branches of government—in these systems, the legislature is institutionally separate from the other branches and has limited means to influence their operations; and supreme state organs of power, found in communist states, which operated under the doctrine of unified power, centralizing executive, legislative, judicial and all other state powers in a supreme state organ of power, with subordinate organs carrying out delegated functions within a constitutionally defined division of labour among state organs.

Types of legislatures

There exist different types of legislatures. In liberal democratic systems, there exist two: parliaments and congress legislatures. Unlike parliament, there are no commonly agreed-upon terms for legislatures in non-parliamentary liberal democracies. Parliaments exist in states that practice the fusion of powers, while congresses exist in states that practice the separation of powers. There also exist other types of legislatures, such as the supreme state organs of power in communist states, which function within the bounds of unified power. Types of legislatures are defined by, as shown, the political power system they operate in. These power principles say something about the relationship between the legislature and other state institutions. For example, that the United Kingdom has a Parliament means that it practices fusion of powers, while Mexico's Congress of the Union informs that Mexico practices the separation of powers. According to scholar Amie Kreppel, the most important distinguishing feature between a type of legislature is the relationship between the legislature and the executive.

Parliament

In liberal democratic states that practice parliamentary democracy, the government in the form of the prime minister and the cabinet is elected by the legislature. The members of the government are elected from within the membership of parliament. Additionally, although an institutionally distinct organ, the government is accountable to parliament. Meaning that, theoretically, the legislature can remove the government as it sees fit, regardless of electoral outcomes. However, the removal of a government by the legislature can lead to early elections and result in both losing power in the coming election. Therefore, the relationship between the legislature and government in a parliamentary democracy is characterised by mutual dependence.

Congress

The boundaries between government branches are clearly demarcated in separation of powers systems. In contrast to parliamentary systems, in separation of powers systems, the head of state and head of government are merged into an executive branch in the office of president. Also, to clarify the institutional boundary even further, the president and the congressional legislature are elected in separate elections. For these reasons, the ability of congress to remove the executive is limited. It can instigate, as in the United States, an impeachment of the executive, but that is considered to be a move only taken in the utmost extreme circumstances.

Supreme state organ of power

Communist states established SSOPs, and formally speaking, these organs are the most powerful state institutions in the respective country. Since it's a holder of the unified powers of the state, the SSOP is constrained only by the limits it has itself set by constitutional and legal documents it has adopted. For example, in China, according to Chinese legal scholar Zhou Fang, "he powers of the National People's Congress as the are boundless, its authority extends to the entire territory of the country, and, if necessary, it can intervene in any matter which it finds it requisite to do so." More specifically, according to Chinese legal scholars Xu Chongde and Niu Wenzhan, "he other central State organs are created by and execute the laws and resolutions made by ."
According to scholar Georg Brunner, this indicates that communist constitutions codify the state's unlimited political powers, and indirectly, those of the ruling communist party. He believes this is proof that the liberal democratic conception of the rule of law is irreconcilable with communist state constitutions because they rest on opposing relationships between law and politics. Under the liberal democratic rule of law conception, political processes are constrained by legal norms supervised by an independent judiciary and are viewed as universal and non-ideological. That means that holders of political power are bound by law, and that law takes precedence over politics. By contrast, communist constitutions codify the primacy of politics over judicial authority, as judicial power is also considered a form of political power. That means that communist states formally subjugate judicial power to the political power of the SSOP. Marxist–Leninists hold that legislation, not judicial rulings, is the sole source of valid law. As a result, Marxism–Leninism rejects the separation of powers, but supports the demarcation of state responsibilities in accordance with the principle of the division of labour. Other state organs derive their powers from, and are subordinated to, the SSOP.

Terminology

The name used to refer to a legislative body varies by country.
Common names include:
By names:
By languages:
Though the specific roles for each legislature differ by location, they all aim to serve the same purpose of appointing officials to represent their citizens to determine appropriate legislation for the country.

History

Among the earliest recognised formal legislatures was the Athenian Ecclesia. In the Middle Ages, European monarchs would host assemblies of the nobility, which would later develop into predecessors of modern legislatures. These were often named the Estates. The oldest surviving legislature is the Icelandic Althing, founded in 930 CE.

Functions

Democratic legislatures have six major functions: representation, deliberation, legislation, authorizing expenditure, making governments, and oversight.

Representation

There exist five ways that representation can be achieved in a legislature:
  • Formalistically: how the rules of the legislature ensure representation of constituents;
  • Symbolically: how the constituents perceive their representatives;
  • Descriptively: how well the composition of the legislature matches the demographics of the wider society;
  • Substantively: how well representatives actually respond to the needs of their constituents;
  • Collectively: how well the representatives represent the interests of the society as a whole.

    Deliberation

One of the major functions of a legislature is to discuss and debate issues of major importance to society. This activity can take place in two forms. In debating legislatures, such as the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the floor of the legislature frequently sees lively debate. In contrast, in committee-based legislatures like the United States Congress, deliberation takes place in closed committees.

Legislation

While legislatures have nominally the sole power to create laws, the substantive extent of this power depends on details of the political system. In Westminster-style legislatures the executive can essentially pass any laws it wants, as it usually has a majority of legislators behind it, kept in check by the party whip, while committee-based legislatures in continental Europe and those in presidential systems of the Americas have more independence in drafting and amending bills. According to the median voter theorem laws aligned with the opinion of median voters increase political responsiveness.

Authorizing expenditure

The origins of the power of the purse which legislatures ordinarily have in passing or denying government budgets goes back to the European assemblies of nobility which the monarchs would have to consult before raising taxes. For this power to be actually effective, the legislature should be able to amend the budget, have an effective committee system, enough time for consideration, as well as access to relevant background information.