week 3 ch 9 lecture

Political Science

Chapter 9: Legislatures

A Legislature Is...

• “a deliberative body that is granted
the authority to create laws to govern
a society.”

Legislatures around the
World

• Not all have the same powers and functions.
• Legislatures in non-democracies have limited roles.
• Some serve as consultants.
• Some are coequal with other branches of government.
• Some are supreme decision-makers.

Passing

Laws:

Who

Comes
Up with
Ideas?

Constituents

Media reporting

Executive officials

Experts

Legislators

Legislators Can . . .

• Propose and sponsor bills
• Hold hearings on important issues
• Review government actions and make

recommendations

• Debate issues in accordance with parliamentary

procedures

Passing Laws

Most laws and decisions require a majority vote, or 50 percent plus one member.

Other, more important measures, such as
constitutional amendments, dismissing a parliament
for new elections, or removing executive officials,
require supermajorities.

These can require anywhere between three-fifths (60%) and three-
quarters (75%) approval.

Some bodies, such as the US Senate, require enhanced majorities to end debate on legislation (cloture).

Organizing the Legislature

Passing legislation requires

collaboration.

Most legislatures are organized

by party.

In legislatures with more than
two parties, more complicated

coalitions can be formed.

Parties in the Legislature: Majority

A majority party
holds at least 50

percent plus one of

the seats.

The majority party

can schedule debate
and consideration of

favored bills.

The majority party is

more likely to get

their preferred

policies enacted.

Parties in the Legislature: Minority

Minority parties

have little

control over the

agenda.

They can

provide a venue
for expression

of dissent.

Legislative Committees

Legislatures

organize through

groups of legislators
who work together
on similar issues.

Individual legislators

may arrive with
expertise or gain
expertise through

specialization.

Other legislators will

delegate to those

with specific
experience.

Professional and Nonprofessional
Legislatures

• Example: California State

Assembly

Professional legislatures
pay their members a full-
time salary and make far

greater demands on

legislators.

• Example: Texas State

Legislature

Nonprofessional

legislatures are more
limited in scope and

demands.

Oversight

• In democracies with checks and balances, oversight is the role the legislature

plays in monitoring and reviewing the actions of agencies or other political
actors.

• In democracies, legislative oversight of the bureaucracy is a key check on the

executive branch.

• Hearings

• Parliamentary Questions

• Budgets

Parliamentary
Systems

Close relationship between legislature and
executive

Executive officials, including prime minister
and heads of agencies, come from legislature

Elections for legislature only

Head of state is often ceremonial and has little
power

Examples: United Kingdom, Denmark

Presidential
Systems

• Legislature and executive

are separate.

• Executive, often a

president, has limited
legislative influence.

• Separate elections for

each branch

• Examples: United States,

Mexico

Semi-Presidential Systems

Have a mix of
characteristics of
both presidential
and parliamentary
systems

1

Often feature both
a president and a
prime minister

2

Examples: France,
Russia

3

Types of Governments around the
World

Presidential
republic

01

Semi-
presidential
republic

02

Parliamentary
republic with an
executive
presidency

03

Constitutional
monarchy

04

Constitutional
parliamentary
monarchy

05

Absolute
monarchy

06

One-party state
07

How Members Are Selected

Legislatures vary

greatly in how

individual members

are selected.

This can impact

which interests get

represented and

how.

Most legislators are

selected through

elections.

Election by Proportional Representation

• Members are selected according to electoral support for different parties across a

regional or national list.

• Voters choose parties rather than individual legislators.
• Many countries have a minimum threshold for earning seats, such as 3 percent or

5 percent of the vote.

• Example: lower house of the National Congress of Brazil

Election by

Plurality

• Members are selected based on who

gets the highest number of votes in a
district.

• Sometimes called first-past-the-post

electoral systems

• Voters choose individual candidates to

represent them

• Can be combined with multimember

districts

• Examples: United States, Canada

Mixed

Systems

Many countries use a
combination of methods to select
members of their legislature.

Using a combination of different
methods can help address
deficiencies of each.

Examples: Germany, South
Korea

Unicameral Legislature

• More efficient
• Political parties are considered sufficient to represent

different interests.

• Lack a natural veto point
• Do not lend themselves to oversight and accountability

Bicameral

Legislature

• Nearly half of the countries in the world

have some form of bicameral system.

• Each body is intended to represent

different interests (for example, the
people and the states).

• Each body is selected in different ways,

leading to more veto points.

• Inefficient
• Bicameral systems can lead to gridlock

and policy paralysis.

Executive

Dominance

and

Legislative
Deference

Over time, executives expand their
powers and rebalance the division of
power.

Legislators often lack the consensus or
political support to oppose these
measures.

Executives can expand their power by
noting a lack of legislative action on a
given topic.

Once power is transferred to the
executive, it is difficult for another
branch to reclaim it.

Polarization

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Increasing division between parties has reduced the
effectiveness of legislatures.

Compromise is difficult as each party tries to appeal to core
voters or as more extremist parties gain power.

Polarization often leads to gridlock, which weakens the
legislature in relation to the executive.