1. Political Science: An Introduction
Fourteenth Edition
Roskin | Cord | Medeiros | Jones
Chapter 12
Legislatures

2. The Origins of Parliaments (1 of 4)
12.1 Trace the origin of parliaments.
Political institutions become more differentiated and complex as they become more modern.
Feudalism – Nobles holding land in exchange for military service and peasants provided labor in exchange for protection.
Is where balance of power between the various institutions of government begins in the evolution of parliaments.
Absolutist monarchs begin to see their powers limited by fledgling parliaments in part because of their need for tax revenues.
In exchange for power of the purse, monarchs gave nobles limited influence on royal policy.
feudalism: System of political power dispersed among layers.
parliament: National legislature; when capitalized, British Parliament, specifically House of Commons.
Riksdag: Sweden's parliament.
Estates General: Old, unused French parliament.
absolutism: Post-feudal concentration of power in monarch.

3. The Origins of Parliaments (4 of 4)
12.1 Trace the origin of parliaments.
Various political philosophers have written on the importance of parliaments.
Locke
Parliament most basic and important institution
Montesquieu
The only way to ensure liberty is to divide government into two branches.
feudalism: System of political power dispersed among layers.
parliament: National legislature; when capitalized, British Parliament, specifically House of Commons.
Riksdag: Sweden's parliament.
Estates General: Old, unused French parliament.
absolutism: Post-feudal concentration of power in monarch.

4. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems (1 of 3)
12.2 Contrast parliamentary and presidential systems.
Presidential systems
Presidential systems show most clearly the idea of separation of powers between legislative and executive branches.
Contrary to what most Americans believe, presidential systems are a minority of the world's systems.
President combines the roles of head of state and head of government, which in effect makes them the symbolic leader of the country in addition to the chief architect of the structure of public policy.
presidential systems: Those with separate election of executive (as opposed to symbolic) president.
president: In U.S.-type systems, the chief political official; in many other systems, a symbolic official.
parliamentary systems: Those with election of parliament only, which in turn elects the prime minister.
prime minister: Chief political official in parliamentary systems.
coalition: Multiparty alliance to form a government.
fall: In parliamentary system, a cabinet is voted out or resigns.
cabinet: Top executives who head major ministries or departments.
government: In Europe, a given cabinet, equivalent to U.S. "administration."
administration: Executives appointed by U.S. president, equivalent to European "government."

5. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems (2 of 3)
12.2 Contrast parliamentary and presidential systems.
Presidential systems
Presidents are elected (more or less) directly by the people.
The United States still retains the slightly archaic indirect method of selection through the Electoral College.
Presidents in general have a lot of power.
More importantly, they are not responsible to the legislature for their power or their term of office and as a result they are extremely difficult to remove from office.
Even impeachment does not guarantee results, as evidenced by efforts to impeach Bill Clinton.
presidential systems: Those with separate election of executive (as opposed to symbolic) president.
president: In U.S.-type systems, the chief political official; in many other systems, a symbolic official.
parliamentary systems: Those with election of parliament only, which in turn elects the prime minister.
prime minister: Chief political official in parliamentary systems.
coalition: Multiparty alliance to form a government.
fall: In parliamentary system, a cabinet is voted out or resigns.
cabinet: Top executives who head major ministries or departments.
government: In Europe, a given cabinet, equivalent to U.S. "administration."

6. Presidential and Parliamentary Systems (3 of 3)
12.2 Contrast parliamentary and presidential systems.
Parliamentary systems
In parliamentary systems, the head of state is weak, symbolic, and distinct from the head of government.
Citizens vote only for the legislature, not for the chief of government, who is a member of parliament and is the head of the party that holds a majority.
Fusion of government combining leg & exec branches
As a consequence the government is directly responsible to the majority in the legislature and the government can fall if the majority does not support its policies.
presidential systems: Those with separate election of executive (as opposed to symbolic) president.
president: In U.S.-type systems, the chief political official; in many other systems, a symbolic official.
parliamentary systems: Those with election of parliament only, which in turn elects the prime minister.
prime minister: Chief political official in parliamentary systems.
coalition: Multiparty alliance to form a government.
fall: In parliamentary system, a cabinet is voted out or resigns.
cabinet: Top executives who head major ministries or departments.
government: In Europe, a given cabinet, equivalent to U.S. "administration."
administration: Executives appointed by U.S. president, equivalent to European "government."

7. Figure 12.1 Parliamentary versus presidential systems.

8. Advantages of Parliamentary Systems (1 of 4)
There are some advantages to the fusion of powers in a parliamentary system.
Cannot suffer from deadlock; what the majority wants the majority gets, because the executive and legislative branches are controlled by the same party.
If there is a disagreement, a no-confidence vote can occur, which means no long, drawn-out political drama, which makes removing executives easier. No- confidence votes are rare though in most parliamentary systems nowadays.
vote of confidence: Vote in parliament to support or oust government.
whip: Legislator who instructs other party members when and how to vote.
Capitol Hill: Home of U.S. Congress (note the spelling: -ol).
minority government: Cabinet lacking firm majority in parliament.
portfolio: Minister's assigned ministry.

9. Disadvantages of Parliamentary Systems (2 of 4)
Parliamentary systems do have some disadvantages.
Votes in parliament can be closely predicted due to high levels of party discipline.
Can be prone to coalition governments, which can be less stable in maintaining the coherence of the government
When no party has a majority, an alternative is to form a minority government that depends on the passive support of other political parties.
vote of confidence: Vote in parliament to support or oust government.
whip: Legislator who instructs other party members when and how to vote.
Capitol Hill: Home of U.S. Congress (note the spelling: -ol).
minority government: Cabinet lacking firm majority in parliament.
portfolio: Minister's assigned ministry.

10. Bicameral or Unicameral? (1 of 4)
12.3 Explain the purpose of a bicameral legislature.
Two-thirds of legislatures in the world have bicameral systems (two houses).
In general, lower houses are much more powerful.
Only in the United States are the two houses of the legislature co-equal, and some would argue that the U.S. Senate is actually more powerful than the House of Representatives.
The main reason for bicameralism comes from the institutional choice of federalism.
In a federal system, the upper house represents component parts such as states or provinces while the lower house represents districts based on population.
National Assembly: Lower, more important chamber of French parliament.
Bundestag: Lower, more important chamber of German parliament.
bicameral: Parliament having two chambers: upper and lower.
Bundesrat: Upper, weaker chamber of German parliament.
Lords: Upper, weaker chamber of British parliament.
life peer: Distinguished Briton named to House of Lords for his or her life, not hereditary.

11. What Legislatures Do
Most of the power of legislatures lies in the committee system, which can make or break legislative proposals.
Committees are critical to the ability of legislatures to function.
Public hearings are a mechanism for getting citizen and interest-group input on legislation.
United States has the most well-defined committee system, in part because of separation of powers.
longitudinal: Studying how something changes over time.

12. What Legislatures Do Lawmaking Constituency work
Legislatures pass laws but rarely originate laws anymore,
Most of the legislative initiative rests with executive departments and agencies making legislatures reactive institutions as they respond to the initiatives of others,
Constituency work
Legislators spend a great deal of time on constituency casework, in which they intervene on behalf of a constituent to help solve problems.
constituency casework: Attention legislators pay to complaints of people who elect them.
ombudsman: Swedish for "agent"; lawyer employed by parliament to help citizens wronged by government.
Question Hour: Time reserved in Commons for opposition to challenge cabinet.
apartheid: System of strict racial segregation formerly practiced in South Africa.

13. What Legislatures Do Supervision and criticism of government Education
British Question Hour is an example of this function, where the opposition challenges and questions the government on policy.
U.S. administrations regularly change policy based on criticisms by Congress.
Education
All countries now carry extensive press reports on legislative activities and often televise legislative proceedings.
constituency casework: Attention legislators pay to complaints of people who elect them.
ombudsman: Swedish for "agent"; lawyer employed by parliament to help citizens wronged by government.
Question Hour: Time reserved in Commons for opposition to challenge cabinet.
apartheid: System of strict racial segregation formerly practiced in South Africa.

14. What Legislatures Do Representation
A large part of representation is psychological, which means that while legislatures may not not always represent the needs and concerns of citizens, at a minimum people need to feel like the legislature represents them.
constituency casework: Attention legislators pay to complaints of people who elect them.
ombudsman: Swedish for "agent"; lawyer employed by parliament to help citizens wronged by government.
Question Hour: Time reserved in Commons for opposition to challenge cabinet.
apartheid: System of strict racial segregation formerly practiced in South Africa.

15. The Decline of Legislatures
12.5 Explain the weaknesses of legislative compared to executive authority.
While Locke believed that legislatures would be the most important party of government, legislatures no longer work the way that Locke envisioned, and this trend of the decline in the importance of legislatures has continued and grown.
Some political scientists argue that expectations for legislatures were too high to begin with and the legislatures are prone to a range of problems that have contributed to this decline.

16. Factors Contributing to the Decline of Legislatures
Structural disadvantages – zero guesswork in parliaments and gridlock in presidential systems
Overspending – balanced budgets are preached but pet project win the day.
Incomprehensible Legislation – Few congressmen read bills for lack of time. Can be hundreds of pages
Lack of Expertise – Many elected officials lack knowledge in broad areas of government
pork barrel: Government projects aimed at legislators' constituencies, also called earmarks.
log rolling: Legislators mutually supporting each other to get pork-barrel bills passed.

17. Factors Contributing to the Decline of Legislatures
Psychological Disadvantage – Focus on president is disproportionate to actual power
Absentee Problem – Few to none are present during debate and many are absent during votes
Lack of Turnover – Approval of congress is strikingly low compared to the high incumbent reelection rate
pork barrel: Government projects aimed at legislators' constituencies, also called earmarks.
log rolling: Legislators mutually supporting each other to get pork-barrel bills passed.