Measuring the Decline of Parliaments: New indicators and Turkey as an Illustrative Case
Abstract
Parliamentary systems historically represent the power of people and are based on parliamentary supremacy. The executive emerging from the parliament blurs the lines between the legislation and executive powers and results in more of a fusion of powers rather than separation. Thus, the relative power of parliament compared with the executive branch has been a subject of study. However, some empirical studies show that the executive branch has been increasing its power vis-à-vis the legislature in many parliamentary systems. As declining parliaments become a popular research topic, the development of indicators for declining parliament gains urgency. This paper revisits the indicators employed in studies on deparliamentarization. In addition to discussing the two commonly used indicators, government stability and responsiveness of governments, it introduces two new ones: the parliament’s role in government change, and the legislative initiative by the parliament. Then, these four indicators are applied to a country case and analyze the changes in the power of parliament in Turkey. The data on these major indicators show that although not exactly linear, there has been a power shift from the parliament to a very strong executive, and “deparliamentarization” has been particularly rapid and profound since the 1980s.
Keywords
References
- Referans 1
- Arter, David (2006), “Introduction: Comparing the Legislative Performance of Legislatures”, The Journal of Legislative Studies, 12 (3-4): 245-257.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
-
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Publication Date
March 26, 2018
Submission Date
September 28, 2017
Acceptance Date
January 8, 2018
Published in Issue
Year 2018 Volume: 73 Number: 1