Policy-making power of opposition players: a comparative institutional perspective

Abstract

The organisation of legislative chambers and the consequences of parliamentary procedures have been among the most prominent research questions in legislative studies. Even though democratic elections not only lead to the formation of a government but also result in an opposition, the literature has mostly neglected oppositions and their role in legislative chambers. This paper proposes to fill this gap by looking at the legislative organisation from the perspective of opposition players. The paper focuses on the potential influence of opposition players in the policy-making process and presents data on more than 50 legislative chambers. The paper shows considerable variance of the formal power granted to opposition players. Furthermore, the degree of institutionalisation of opposition rights is connected to electoral systems and not necessarily correlated with other institutional characteristics such as regime type or the size of legislative chambers.

Leadership and Multicultural Environment; Kyai's Power and Authority Contest at Pondok Pesantren

“…They may become oppressive leaders, punitive, and rigid in decision making. Wegmann (2022) provides a practical framework for how this political thinking framework is implemented in schools; first, Go beyond the authority system; Formal power is not enough to lead. Second, Tap into the informal authority; Expand your authority and influence.…”

Oposición política (en las democracias)

“…La Tabla 4 sintetiza las variables principales de carácter interno que se consideran en los estudios de Garritzmann (2017) y Wegmann (2020) 11 . Como se puede observar, los factores están agrupados siguiendo el criterio de las «etapas» del proceso político-legislativo (Wegmann, 2020).…”

The Frequency of Use of Legislative and Non-Legislative Tools in Five Countries

“…Examples include Italy and Israel (Akirav 2014;Pedrazzani et al 2018;Tuttnauer 2020). Even though the most obvious role of parliament is to legislate, in many countries such as Germany, the UK, Australia and Canada the government dominates the legislative process and initiates most bills (Hohendorf et al 2021;Norton 2013;Wegmann 2020). Hence, the role of parliament has shifted and the ability to oversee the government has become a more important aspect of the parliamentary life of the individual legislator.…”

“…In most parliaments, legislators have the right to introduce bills. However, there are countries such as Germany in which the right to initiate legislation from within parliament lies in the hands of parliamentary party groups or groups of legislators comprising at least five percent of the legislators (Wegmann 2020). Scholars agree that in most cases bills can be introduced with no serious intention of formulating and enacting new legislation or influencing government legislation.…”

“…Legislative behavior has received a great deal of research attention whether it looked at one country (Koger 2003;Tuttnauer 2020) or compared several countries (Bä ck and Debus 2016;Jenkins and Monroe 2016;Wegmann 2020). The research has focused on the determinants of introducing and voting on legal proposals, on the length of time such proposals are in the legislative process and on voting behavior using roll calls.…”