A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 15 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for the exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 15 – ASSEMBLIES
- Or parliaments or legislatures
- Public and democratic face of the government
- Acting as national debating chambers and public forums
- They differ based on parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential system
ROLE OF ASSEMBLIES
- Congress (USA), national assembly (France), house of representatives (Japan),
parliament (Singapore), congress of deputies (Spain)
o Assemblies, legislatures, or parliaments
o Collection or gathering of people
- Legislature → the branch of government whose chief function is to make laws,
although it is seldom the only body with legislative power
- Parliamentary government → is one in which the government governs in and
through the assembly or parliament – fusing the legislative and executive branches
o 1. Governments are formed as a result of assembly elections
o 2. The personnel of government are drawn from the assembly
o 3. The governments rests on the assembly’s confidence and can be removed if
it loses that confidence
o 4. The government can, in most cases, dissolve the assembly
o 5. Parliamentary executives are generally collective
- Rarely monopolise law-making power
o Executives’ posses the same ability to make laws
- Enactment of law is only one of the functions, not necessarily the most important
- Parliaments are debating chambers → forums in which policies and political issues
can be openly discussed and scrutinized
Parliamentary, presidential, and semi-presidential systems
- Relationship between the assembly and the government – relationship between
legislative and executive authority → depends on the system
o Subordinate to the unchallengeable authority of the ruling party
- Parliamentary system
o Westminster style – UK Parliament (13th century)
o Also, Germany, Sweden India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia
o Fusion of legislative and executive power
▪ Government is parliamentary – drawn from and accountable to the
assembly or parliament
▪ Government can thus ensure the legislative programme is passed –
get things done
o The assembly has the upper hand because it has the ultimate power to
remove the government
- Responsible government → is answerable or accountable to an elected assembly
and, through it, to the people
, o However, sometimes fails to live up to the expectations – strong policy
influence
o UK – combination of strict party discipline and disproportional electoral
system normally allows the government to control Parliament through
majority in the House of Commons
o Parliamentary systems may cause for parliaments to become little more than
talking shops
o Parliamentary systems are linked with weak government and political
instability
▪ Immobilism
- Elective dictatorship → imbalance between the executive and the assembly that
means that, once elected, the government is only constrained by the need to win
subsequent elections
- Lobby fodder → pejorative term denoting assembly members who vote consistently
and unquestioningly as their parties dictate
- Montesquieu
o French political philosopher
o Persian Letters, The Spirit of the Laws
o Comparative examination of political and legal issues
o Parliamentary liberalism
o State needs to resist tyranny by fragmenting government power →
separation of powers
- Immobilism → political paralysis stemming from the absence of a strong executive,
caused by multiple divisions in the assembly and society
- Presidential government
o Separation of powers – Montesquieu
o Assemblies and executives are formally independent and separately elected
o US, Latin America
o Semi-presidential/hybrid → France during the fifth republic
▪ Elected president works in conjunction with a prime minister and
cabinet drawn from and responsible to National Assembly
▪ Balance between
▪ Finland – president concerned largely with foreign affairs and leaves
domestic responsibilities to the cabinet
▪ Also many post-communist states
• Russia – super presidentialism
o Separation of executive and legislative power – creates internal tensions that
help to protect individual rights and liberties (Hobbes)
▪ Congress has the right to declare war and raise taxes
▪ Senate must ratify treaties and confirm presidential appointments
▪ Two houses combined can impeach the president
o Criticism → can create government gridlock
- Checks and balances → internal tensions within the governmental system that result
from institutional fragmentation
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