ABSTRACT

How do legislative Committees in emerging democracies spend their time? Committees are organisational devices for expanding valuable legislative time. Existing works posit that Committee work reflects legislatures’ need to rationalise their processes and outputs, acquire specialised expertise and information, and improve members’ electoral prospects by maximising policy impact. However, not all legislatures have the capacity to significantly shape policy design, influence executive agency behaviour during implementation, or advance their members’ political careers. This paper argues that in legislatures that fall in the latter category, Committee work focuses on maximising the personal benefit of individual legislators, as opposed to being geared towards policy impact or electoral goals. These findings increase our understanding of the industrial organisation of legislatures in emerging democracies where the executive-legislative balance of power favours the executive branch.

摘要

新兴民主国家的立法委员会如何度过他们的时间？委员会是扩大宝贵立法时间的组织机构。现有工作认为，委员会的工作反映了立法机构需要使其流程和产出合理化，获得专业知识和信息，并通过最大化政策影响来改善成员的选举前景。然而，并非所有立法机构都有能力显着影响政策设计、影响执行机构在执行过程中的行为或提升其成员的政治生涯。本文认为，在属于后一类的立法机构中，委员会的工作重点是最大化个别立法者的个人利益，而不是针对政策影响或选举目标。