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Presiding Officers of National Parliamentary Assemblies PRESIDING OFFICERS OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIES A WORLD COMPARATIVE STUDY PRESIDING OFFICERS OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIES A WORLD COMPARATIVE STUDY Georges Bergougnous Inter-Parliamentary Union Geneva 1997 @ Inter-Parliamentary Union 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be a way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher. ISBN 92-9142-028-X Published by INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION B.P. 438 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland Layout, printing and binding by Sadag Imprimerie, Bellegarde, France Cover design by Aloys Robellaz, Les Studios Lolos, Carouge, Switzerland Translated from the French by Jennifer Lorenzi, Sergy, France Table of Contents FOREWORD ix PREFACE xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT xhi INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: THE STATUS OF THE SPEAKER I. THE SPEAKER'S TERM OF OFFICE 6 1. Election of the Speaker 6 (a) Choosing the Speaker 9 (b) The time at which the Speaker is chosen 14 (c) Procedures for electing the Speaker 17 2. Carrying out the Speaker's term of office 26 (a) A ceremony marks the Speaker's taking up office 26 (b) The Speaker's term of office generally coincides with that of the House 29 (c) Termination of the Speaker's office is rarely due to the wishes of the House 30 II. THE STATUS OF THE SPEAKER 35 1. The Speaker's status within the House 35 (a) The Speaker's primacy is universally recognized 35 (b) The Speaker enjoys a privileged material situation 37 2. The Speaker's status outside the House 40 (a) A high rank in the hierarchy and its institutional impact 40 (b) The Speaker generally represents the House in the international sphere 44 PART TWO: THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SPEAKER I. PRESIDENCY OF THE ASSEMBLY AS AN INSTITUTION 47 1. Supervision of administrative matters in Parliament 47 (a) The appointment of the Clerk and the organization of services 48 (b) Preparing and implementing the budget of Parliament 52 2. Organization of Parliament's work 54 (a) Distribution of work: what role does the Speaker play in the chairmanship, composition and agenda of committees? 54 (b) Preparation of debates 58 II. PRESIDENCY OF THE ASSEMBLY AS A DELIBERATIVE BODY 65 1. Presiding over the debates 65 (a) Does the Speaker control the organization at the sitting? 67 (b) Does the Speaker govern oral interventions? 72 (c) Does the Speaker have control of the texts under discussion? 76 (d) Does the Speaker control voting? 78 (e) Does the Speaker control the Rules of Procedure? 79 2. Participation in debates 81 (a) Can the Speaker take the floor during debates? 81 (b) Can the Speaker exercise the right of initiative? 83 (c) Can the Speaker take part in monitoring procedures? 83 (d) Does the Speaker vote? 84 3. Following up legislation 86 (a) Does the Speaker authenticate the adopted texts and the records of debates? 86 (b) What is the Speaker's role in the promulgation of laws and verification of their constitutionality? 87 PART THREE : THE PLACE OF THE SPEAKER IN THE INSTITUTIONS I. CONDITIONS FOR EXERCISING THE SPEAKER'S FUNCTIONS 91 1. Individual or collective exercise of the presidency 91 (a) The absence or presence of a collegiate body affects the Speaker's role in the Assembly's functioning 92 (b) ... but does not on its own lead to individual or collective exercise of the presidency 95 2. The Speaker's role as the arbitrator or protagonist 96 3. Some sociological aspects of the office 100 II. AN ATTEMPT TO CHARACTERIZE PRESIDING OFFICERS OF PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIES 103 1. The Speaker's functions have a common historical origin 103 2. The British model is a constant tradition in Commonwealth countries 104 3. Is there a continental American model? 105 4. The Unity of a continental European model 108 5. Characteristics of the presidency in socialist regimes 109 6. Special features of the presidency in parliamentary Assemblies in developing countries Ill 7. Does the presidency of Upper House have special features? 113 8. Is there a model Speaker of a parliamentary Assembly? 115 CONCLUSION in BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 119 Foreword One of the goals of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is to work for the strengthening of representative institutions. It goes about this in many ways, in particular by publishing comparative and analytical studies on the working of Parliament. Periodically, the Inter-Parliamentary Union issues specialised monographs on various aspects of parliamentary life and entrusts the preparation of these works to eminent experts. The first such study was made in the late 1950s when the Inter- Parliamentary Union launched an international enquiry on Parliaments. The result of this enquiry appeared in 1960 in the form of a comprehensive study "Parliaments". Revised and expanded editions of this work were published up to 1986. The publication of further editions was men called into question on account of the increase in the number of Parliaments — from 59 in 1960 to 179 in 1996 — and the rapid development of their structures and working methods which would require constant up-dating. Fortunately, new possibilities were opened up with the advent of the spread of computer technology. The governing bodies of the Inter-Parliamentary Union thus decided to replace this publication by a database, supplemented by a series of monographs. The Inter-Parliamentary Union first established a database called PARLINE, Parliaments on line. It currently consists of four modules containing information on Parliaments, electoral systems, the results of the most recent legislative elections and the presiding officers of Parliaments. Other modules will be added gradually. In due time, PARLINE will be sufficiently exhaustive so as to constitute a universal research and information tool providing access to several layers of data on the role, stucture and functioning of all the world's national Parliaments. Already, PARLINE can be consulted through Internet at the Inter-Parliamentary Union's web site at http://www.ipu.org. This monograph is the first in a series prepared from the information contained in PARLINE. It is only natural that it should cover the Speakers of representative Assemblies. Indeed, they occupy a privileged place in Parliaments which could not work without them. In most countries, they rank very high in the State hierarchy and are invested with important authority under national Constitutions. The publication of a comparative study on this subject helps to make the functions of Speakers better known not only to the Parliaments of other countries but also to universities and research institutions, journalists and to all those who take an interest in various aspects of the development and working of political systems. The different sections which comprise this monograph have been devised in such a way as to present the basic facts concisely in order to bring out the similarities and the major differences between the various parliamentary systems. - ix - This study could not have been completed without the help, diligence and zeal of all those who helped in its preparation, first and foremost the Clerks and staff of the many Parliaments who made an indispensable contribution to its formulation and exactitude by providing most of the data. A warm vote of thanks goes to them all. Hie thanks of the Inter-Parliamentary Union also go to those who contributed to the preparation of this monograph, and particularly to the menbers of its Expert Committee for their help and pertinent advice to the author. Special thank are due to Michel Ameller—Honorary Secretary General of the French National Assembly, member of the French Constitutional Council and author of the first comparative study on Parliaments — who provided unfailing support to this project. The Inter-Parliamentary Union entrusted this study to Georges Bergougnous, administrator at the French National Assembly and currently Head of the Legal Department of the French Constitutional Council. He has very ably carried out the mandate he received by producting a work of remarkable quality. There will certainly be many, members of parliament and specialists in constitutional law who will be interested in reading this work. Pierre Cornillon Secretary General - x - Preface Having served the Republic at the side of seven successive Presidents of the National Assembly, I am delighted that the Inter-Parliamentary Union has undertaken to publish monographs on the organisation and working of Parliaments, starting with "Presiding Officers of National Parliaments". Research workers, scholars, students and all those interested in the life of the nation — and why not also the general public? — will find a wealth of unrivalled information in this specialized study prepared on the basis of documentation provided by the Parliaments of 117 countries. Having already prepared a comparative study for the Inter-Parliamentary Union on Parliaments of the world, and being thus fully aware of all the difficulties of this kind of undertaking, I wish to congratulate the author of this study. Comparative law is a discipline full of pitfalls, starting with linguistic problems where seemingly similar words do not always convey the same concepts. A second difficulty lies in the extreme diversity of parliamentary cultures, some with roots going back over centuries while others are scarcely emerging. These cultures, therefore, cannot easily be reconciled rationally. Moreover, the individual personality of the men and women who hold office as Speaker in many cases multiplies the instances of the specific features inherent in a particular Parliament.
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