What role have parliaments played in the dramatic changes occurring in Eastern and Central Europe? Adopting a common research framework, the contributors analyze in detail the role and operations of parliaments in ten of the new democracies. They focus on what determines their capacity to have some impact on public policy. They identify the significance of parliaments operating in often hybrid systems of government, with the relationship between the executive and legislature not well defined, and with an absence of constraining influence that typify western political systems.

At the end of the "founding" or initial decade, the new parliaments of post-Communist Europe had developed two distinct types: democratic and presidentially-dominated. Whilst in the early years, they had been characterised as "parliaments in adolescence," they have - through the second decade - continued to improvise but also elaborate their working relationships with both their chief executives and electorates. This book examines these adaptations in seven parliaments, comparing both among them and with parliaments of west Europe. Their changes are traced through four distinct sets in context, members, internal structure, and working relationship with the executive. This research develops a common perspective for our understanding of both new and developed legislatures by tracing the steps through which new parliaments begin, adapt and become established. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Legislative Studies.

The sudden collapse of communism stimulated both the rapid emergence of fledgling democracies and scholarly attention to the post-communist transition. These newly democratized parliaments have been described as parliaments in adolescence.

This book identifies six parliaments which exemplify the wide range of developments in the new post-communist political systems, from the stable consolidated democracies to the less stable and more authoritarian states, within which their respective parliaments function.

Finally the post-communist parliaments are compared with the presumptively more established west European parliaments. This book bridges the usual gap in research between the post-communist parliaments and more normal democratic parliaments to develop a common legislative research perspective on both new and established parliaments.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies.

This text summarizes the research on, and experiences of, democratic legislatures around the world. It focuses on what legislatures are and what they do - as both consequence of and contributor to democratic self-government.

This text summarizes the research on, and experiences of, democratic legislatures around the world. It focuses on what legislatures are and what they do - as both consequence of and contributor to democratic self-government.

The role legislatures play in the public policy-making process is of central concern to political scientists. Conventional wisdom claims that all legislatures except perhaps the US Congress are either marginal to the policy-making process or becoming increasingly so. In Legislatures in the Policy Process leading specialists in comparative government reassess this view and significantly advance research on the influence of legislatures. In the opening chapter, David Olson and Michael Mezey identify three categories of variables - external influences, internal influences and policy attributes - which can affect the policy-making role of legislatures. They specify sixteen hypotheses that describe the relationship between these variables and the policy participation of legislatures. In subsequent chapters, these hypotheses are examined through a series of individual and comparative country studies which focus upon the role of the legislatures in various aspects of economic policy making. These include the influence of the French, German, British and US legislatures on monetary policy; the role of the Brazilian Congress and Indian Parliament in computer and electronics policy and the part played by the Polish Sejm in labour policy.

The role legislatures play in the public policy-making process is of central concern to political scientists. Conventional wisdom claims that all legislatures except perhaps the US Congress are either marginal to the policy-making process or becoming increasingly so. In Legislatures in the Policy Process leading specialists in comparative government reassess this view and significantly advance research on the influence of legislatures. In the opening chapter, David Olson and Michael Mezey identify three categories of variables - external influences, internal influences and policy attributes - which can affect the policy-making role of legislatures. They specify sixteen hypotheses that describe the relationship between these variables and the policy participation of legislatures. In subsequent chapters, these hypotheses are examined through a series of individual and comparative country studies which focus upon the role of the legislatures in various aspects of economic policy making. These include the influence of the French, German, British and US legislatures on monetary policy; the role of the Brazilian Congress and Indian Parliament in computer and electronics policy and the part played by the Polish Sejm in labour policy.

The sudden collapse of communism stimulated both the rapid emergence of fledgling democracies and scholarly attention to the post-communist transition. These newly democratized parliaments have been described as "parliaments in adolescence". This book identifies six parliaments which exemplify the wide range of developments in the new post-communist political systems, from the stable consolidated democracies to the less stable and more authoritarian states, within which their respective parliaments function. Finally the post-communist parliaments are compared with the presumptively more established west European parliaments. This book bridges the usual gap in research between the post-communist parliaments and more "normal" democratic parliaments to develop a common legislative research perspective on both new and established parliaments. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies.