Variation in Parliamentary Power: Measurement and Explanation

Abstract

Democratization is a century-long hot issue in comparative politics. Parliament functions as the central system of democracy. Studies on comparative parliament can shed light on the politics of democratization. The core issue in comparative parliament is that how to explain variation in parliamentary power. This study reviews the burgeoning literature on parliamentary power and focuses on the measurement and explanation of variation in parliamentary power. A small but growing amount of studies provide three theoretical perspectives, namely political institution, the incentive structure of parliament members, and political party. All those propositions emphasize the significance of the political party. As for the relationship between the political party and committees in parliament, there are two conflicting versions: substitution thesis and agent thesis. Based on these reviews, this paper puts forward the issues of future research in comparative parliament.