Stronger legislatures stronger democracies

This essay proposes a new way of thinking about how political institutions influence democratisation, one that examines the capacity or power of specific offices. In particular, it focuses upon the strength of the legislature and its consequences for the advance of democracy.

The essay also presents a new instrument for measuring the powers of national legislatures across different constitutional frameworks. It offers data on the powers of legislatures and analyses the effects of the powers of legislatures on movement toward greater or lesser democracy.

The author argues that stronger legislatures serve as a weightier check on presidents and thus a more reliable guarantor of horizontal accountability than weaker legislatures do. They also provide a stronger stimulus to party building.

Where legislatures are more powerful, people invest more in parties and parties grow stronger. The strength of parties varies positively with the strength of the legislature. Furthermore, stronger parties are better at linking the people and elected officials—that is, at promoting vertical accountability—than are weaker parties.

The practical implications of these findings include:

• would-be democratisers should focus on creating a powerful legislature.
• in polities with weak legislatures, democrats should make constitutional reforms to strengthen the legislature a top priority

Further, the myriad problems that occupy the minds of democrats during the dizzying days of regime change, such as designing decentralisation, crafting voting rules, building civil society, and controlling the military, may be of great importance. But if politicians fail to establish a national legislature with far-reaching powers, the people will soon find themselves in a polity where their votes do not count (or are not counted properly) and their voices are not heard.

If a powerful legislature is established, the people may gain and retain their freedom and a say in how they are ruled—even in countries that embark upon regime change with inherited structural and historical disadvantages.