Notes on Blondel: Comparative Legislatures (1973) Blondel, J. (1973) Prentice-Hall. 3 4 Comparative Legislatures.

Englewood Cliffs:

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paradox that legislatures are rarely "strong", but they are rarely abolished for very long. Problem of conception of functions of legislatures: originally thought as primarily law-passing body; focus on "general rules", leaving specific ones up to the executive Problem of defining "general rules" Three forms of "disenchantment" about legislatures: i) belief that they have "declined" in terms of performance, matters they take up, power, etc.; ii) concern over "rubber-stamp" legis.; iii) subordination of legislatures to strong parties yet they are persistent phenomena: of 138 countries in world, only 5 have never had htem Seems that leaders have trouble keeping themselves in power iwthout the legitimation that legislatures apparently provide Only four countries, one of them Cuba, have passed more than decade without legislature. rubber-stamp phenomenon may nod be as wide-spread as believed, even in Communist countries Ch. 2: Functions of legislatures Perhaps view of their decline owes to not looking at what they actually do, as opposed to what it is held they should do Laws and statutes are not what they used to be: statutes were to be distinguished from policies: first is static, 2nd dynamic Thus statutes would deal with general questions of rights, etc.: this prior to time of extensive govt involvement in society Clearly the general/particular distinction that is supposed to define teh tasks of legislatures will be determined in each specific case The traditional focus on the institution as a whole must also be complemented with analysis of role of individual legislators: more concern with detailed matters... will see this perhaps as better expenditure of energy Legislators may serve as intermediariesfor demands made by others or as initiators of demands These demands will have varying degrees of generality, as will the outputs sought Though legislators will try to do a variety of tasks, the way they go about this will be influenced by the traditioanl procedures of legislatures: thus, may resort to law-making or law proposing when their goal is something else (as when law put forward merely to be able to give a speech on a certain question). Also, in this context, frequent use of amendments as "tricks" New procedures have also been developed, such as question period, legislative committees "Law-making is a wasteful activity in many of its aspects

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because it is distorted from its original aims." 133 134 Conclusion: The future of legislatures legislatures are not insignificant, "except in comparison with what people want them to be." Errneous view that legislatures shoudl be free from outside pressures To focus on law-making is to ignore fact that most laws require a level of technical preparation for which legislatures are simply not suited. Nor is it reasonable to except legislatures to be involved in making and unmaking govts in a regular fashion Role more that of providing guidance "The function of the legislature is to provide a means of ensuring that there are channels of communication between the people and the executive, as a result of which it is possible for demands to be injected into teh decisoin-making machienry whenever they exist and for the executive decisions to be checked if they reaise difficulties, problems and injustices." For this, of course, legislatures need legal powers of decision Study found surprising # of legislatures with adequate discussion of bills, high # of meeting days, and significant # of discussions on matters other than legislation Typology of types of legislature: i) "nascent or inchoate": rarely meet, if any influence, it exists only on detailed matters ii) "truncated": some general bills discussed, but only a fraction of the general decisions that are being made in the state: situation in many African countries iii) "inhibited": discusses a broad range of questions, but cannot really influence the executive, except on intermediate questions "true" legislatures does not appear to be any long-term trend towards "decline" of legislatures Important, says author, for legislatures and their members to adjust to their realistic functions

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