Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National : A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

THE HANDBOOK OF NATIONAL LEGISLATURES

Where is the power? Students of politics have pondered this question, and social scientists have scrutinized formal political institutions and the distribution of power among agencies of the government and the state. But we still lack a rich bank of data measuring the power of specific governmental agencies, particularly national legislatures. This book assesses the strength of the national of every country in the world with a population of at least a half-million inhabitants. The Legislative Powers Survey (LPS) is a list of thirty-two items that gauges the legislature’s sway over the executive, its institutional autonomy, its authority in specific areas, and its institu- tional capacity. Data were generated by means of a vast international survey of experts, extensive study of secondary sources, and painstaking analysis of constitutions and other relevant documents. Individual country chapters provide answers to each of the thirty-two survey items, supplemented by expert commentary and relevant excerpts from constitutions.

M. Steven Fish is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berke- ley. He is author of Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (2005), which was the recipient of the Best Book Award of 2006 presented by the Compara- tive Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association. He is also author of Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolu- tion (1995) and a coauthor of Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (2001). His articles have appeared in World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Democ- racy, Post-Soviet Affairs, and other journals. He served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia, in 2007 and at the European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2000–1. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Distinguished Social Sciences Teaching Award of the College of Letters and Science, University of California, Berkeley.

Matthew Kroenig is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His articles have appeared in Security Studies, Foreign Policy, Democratization, and other journals. He has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California. He has also served as a strategist on the policy-planning staff in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he was the principal author of the first-ever U.S. government-wide strategy for deterring terrorist networks. For his work he received the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

For our parents, Michael Fish and Cherrie Robinson and Mark Kroenig and Barb Kroenig

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

The Handbook of National Legislatures

A GLOBAL SURVEY

M. Steven Fish University of California, Berkeley

Matthew Kroenig Georgetown University

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi

Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521514668

 C M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig 2009

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2009

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Cataloging in Publication Data

Fish, M. Steven (Michael Steven), 1962– The handbook of national legislatures : a global survey / M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-51466-8 (hardback) 1. Legislative bodies – Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Kroenig, Matthew. II. Title. JF511.F57 2008 328.03–dc22 2008010769

ISBN 978-0-521-51466-8 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first printing, but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

CONTENTS

1 Introduction ...... page 1 Conventional Categories of Constitutional Systems 2 The Legislative Powers Survey 3 The Survey Items 4 The Parliamentary Powers Index 13 The Use of Constitutions 15 Use of the Data 16 Debts and Acknowledgments 16

2 Country Studies ...... 18 National Assembly of Afghanistan 18 Assembly of Albania 22 27 National Assembly of Angola 31 Argentine National Congress 36 Armenian National Assembly 40 44 48 Parliament of Azerbaijan 52 National Assembly of Bahrain 56 Bangladesh Parliament 61 National Assembly of Belarus 65 Federal Parliament of Belgium 70 National Assembly of Benin 74 National Assembly of Bhutan 78 Bolivian National Congress 81 Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina 86 National Assembly of Botswana 89 National Congress of Brazil 94 National Assembly of Bulgaria 98 National Assembly of Burkina Faso 103 107 National Assembly of Cambodia 112 National Assembly of Cameroon 117 121 National Assembly of the Central African Republic 125 National Assembly of Chad 130 Congress of Chile 135 Chinese National People’s Congress 140 144 Assembly of Comoros 150 Parliament of Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) 155 National Assembly of Congo-Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) 159 Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica 165

v

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

vi Contents

National Assembly of Coteˆ d’Ivoire 169 Parliament of Croatia 173 National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba 178 House of Representatives of Cyprus 182 Parliament of the Czech Republic 187 Parliament of Denmark 191 National Congress of the Dominican Republic 195 National Congress of Ecuador 199 People’s Assembly of Egypt 205 Legislative Assembly of El Salvador 210 National Assembly of Eritrea 214 Parliament of Estonia 218 Parliament of Ethiopia 224 Parliament of Fiji 229 Parliament of Finland 235 Parliament of France 240 245 National Assembly of The Gambia 250 Supreme Council of Georgia 255 Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany 261 Parliament of Ghana 266 Parliament of Greece 272 Congress of Guatemala 278 National Assembly of Guinea 283 National People’s Assembly of Guinea-Bissau 287 National Assembly of Guyana 292 National Assembly of Haiti 297 National Congress of Honduras 301 National Assembly of Hungary 305 311 House of Representatives of Indonesia 316 Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Iran 320 Council of Representatives of Iraq 325 Parliament of Ireland 330 Parliament of Israel 334 Parliament of Italy 338 343 of Japan 348 National Assembly of Jordan 353 357 National Assembly of Kenya 362 Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) 366 National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) 370 National Assembly of Kuwait 374 Legislative Assembly of Kyrgyzstan 379 National Assembly of Laos 384 Parliament of Latvia 388 National Assembly of Lebanon 392 397 National Assembly of Liberia 402 General People’s Congress of Libya 406 Parliament of Lithuania 409 Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia 414 National Assembly of Madagascar 418

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51466-8 - The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig Frontmatter More information

Contents vii

National Assembly of Malawi 423 428 National Assembly of Mali 432 Parliament of Mauritania 436 National Assembly of Mauritius 441 Mexican Congress 447 Parliament of Moldova 451 Great State Assembly of Mongolia 456 Parliament of Morocco 460 Assembly of Mozambique 465 People’s Assembly of Myanmar (Burma) 469 National Assembly of Namibia 470 Parliament of Nepal 475 States-General of the Netherlands 481 Parliament of New Zealand 484 National Assembly of Nicaragua 487 National Assembly of Niger 491 National Assembly of Nigeria 495 Parliament of Norway 501 505 508 National Assembly of Panama 514 National Parliament of Papua New Guinea 519 Congress of 524 Congress of Peru 529 Congress of the Philippines 534 539 Assembly of Portugal 545 Consultative Council of Qatar 550 554 Federal Assembly of the Russian 560 565 Consultative Council of Saudi Arabia 570 National Assembly of Senegal 574 National Assembly of Serbia 578 Parliament of Sierra Leone 584 Parliament of Singapore 590 National Council of the Slovak Republic 595 Parliament of Slovenia 600 Transitional Federal Assembly of Somalia 604 Parliament of South Africa 605 The General Courts of Spain 610 Parliament of Sri Lanka 616 National Legislature of Sudan 621 Parliament of Swaziland 626 Parliament of Sweden 631 Federal Assembly of Switzerland 636 People’s Assembly of Syria 640 Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, Republic of China 644 Supreme Assembly of Tajikistan 648 National Assembly of Tanzania 652 National Assembly of Thailand 659 National Parliament of Timor-Leste 666 National Assembly of Togo 671 Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago 676

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viii Contents

National Parliament of Tunisia 681 Turkish Grand National Assembly 685 People’s Council of Turkmenistan 692 National Assembly of Uganda 696 Supreme Council of Ukraine 702 Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates 708 Parliament of the United Kingdom 713 Congress of the United States of America 716 Uruguayan General Assembly 720 Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan 725 National Assembly of Venezuela 729 National Assembly of Vietnam 734 Parliament of Yemen 739 National Assembly of Zambia 744 748

3 Comprehensive Lists of Country Scores ...... 754 Parliamentary Powers Index Scores by Country, in Alphabetical Order 754 Parliamentary Powers Index Scores by Country, in Order of Scores 756

4 List of Expert Consultants ...... 758

Select Bibliography 765

Index 797

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