Open AccessVariation in Parliamentary Power: Measurement and Explanation
Author(s) -
Haisen Liang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chinese journal of international review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2630-5321
pISSN - 2630-5313
DOI - 10.1142/s2630531321500050
Subject(s) - parliament , democratization , politics , comparative politics , political science , power (physics) , democracy , institution , incentive , political economy , variation (astronomy) , political system , law , law and economics , public administration , sociology , economics , market economy , astrophysics , physics , quantum mechanics
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.