Parliamentary committees: Changing perspectives on changing institutions

Abstract

Parliaments, which according to the then prevalent scholarly literature were expected to decline in significance in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, actually have developed new and vital political roles and, in recent decades, have innovated in their institutional structure – most recurrently in their newly organised or invigorated parliamentary committees. This is in striking contrast to the seeming antipathy between a vigorous committee system and traditional parliamentary government. There has been a growth of the centrality of committees, not only in a few parliaments, but as a global phenomenon. Even as newly democratic parliaments throughout the world experiment with more elaborate committee structures, those with older, highly developed committee systems are reaching for more varied and flexible alternatives. In short, parliamentary committees have emerged as vibrant and central institutions of democratic parliaments of today's world and have begun to define new and changing roles for themselves. This publication in its entirety is devoted to the study and evaluation of these important and still emergent parliamentary developments ‐ to an understanding of the new roles of parliamentary committees in the quest for effective parliamentary influence in and contribution to democratic government.