Parliamentary Oversight Tools

by Riccardo Pelizzo; Frederick Stapenhurst

• ISBN13: 9780203151228
• ISBN10: 0203151224
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2013-06-17
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

This book investigates Parliaments'¬" capacity to oversee government activities, policy and budget legislation. Utilising a comparative approach, the book presents a new examination of tools available to ensure effective oversight. The result of a 9-year collaboration between the authors, this book draws from the findings of survey data collected by the World Bank Institute and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, analysing information from 120 parliaments. The book represents a rigorous attempt to test whether international organizations are correct in claiming that the quality of democracy and good governance can be improved by strengthening the oversight capacity of legislatures. It discusses the tools available to parliaments worldwide, and taking a comparative approach considers which tools are more or less common, how oversight capacity can be estimated, and how oversight capacity is related to other institutional and constitutional factors. This analysis is the basis of an evaluation of policy, the implications of oversight capacity, and the level of oversight capacity on the quality of democracy and on the level of good governance. Parliamentary Oversight Toolswill be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of legislative politics and governance.