Papers Parliamentary Development

Papers

Arab Parliamentary Rule: Comparitive Study summary (paper pdf- in Arabic)
Dr. Wassim Harb Director, Bureau d'Etudes et de Recherches en Informatique et Droit
English translation: Lala Arabian

The Monitoring Role of Arab Parliaments: A Comparative Study summary (paper pdf)
Dr Raghid El Solh Co-director, Project on Democracy Studies in the Arab Countries

Towards an Agenda to Develop The Action of Arab Parliaments summary (paper pdf)
Dr. Ali Al Sawwi Professor of Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt

Legislative Functions of the Arab Parliaments: Comparative Study summary (paper pdf)
Dr. Azza Wehbe Senior Researcher, People's Assembly, Egypt

Summaries

Arab Parliamentary Rule: Comparitive Study English translation: Lala Arabian
Dr. Wassim Harb Director, Bureau d'Etudes et de Recherches en Informatique et Droit
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The Monitoring Role of Arab Parliaments: A Comparative Study
Dr Raghid El Solh Co-director, Project on Democracy Studies in the Arab Countries

Successful parliamentary scrutiny and control of the government entails two elements: First, elements which are pertinent to the internal structure and functioning of the legislatures themselves, mainly, "…the power, ability and willingness of the [parliament] to hold the executive to account", as stated by Weir and Beetham. Second, the general conditions in the country such as the prevailing political culture among the elites and among public opinion regarding the role of the parliament and its relation to the executive, the emergence and the development of a multi-party system, the availability of information for the public as opposed to the culture of secrecy which dominates the political scene, and finally the proper international conditions which have special impact on emerging democracies and the role of the legislature in them.

Bearing these elements in mind, and also international developments, which affect the roles and the functioning of modern parliaments, the paper attempts to assess the degree of the success of Arab parliaments in scrutinizing and controlling the executives in the Arab region over the last decade, and to make a number of suggestions regarding the improvement of their performance in this field.
The application of various instruments of parliamentary control, such as submitting written and oral questions, interpellations, votes of confidence and censure, demanding general debates on certain issues, the formation of fact finding committees, are examined in the paper in details, for different Arab states, especially those which had active parliaments.

The general picture which emerges indicates that Arab parliaments, or at least some of them, have made some progress during the nineties in improving their technical and human capacities. Members of parliaments in a number of Arab states are provided with administrative assistants and with personal offices, the legal framework for parliamentary control has been sometimes improved, and parliamentarians have better access to information and media. However, it seems that the crucial element in the development of the Arab parliament exists outside these institutions, i.e. in the external environment.

To improve parliamentary control of the executive in the Arab region, the paper makes a number of suggestions, such as providing Arab members of the parliaments with technical and research assistants, improving the role of the committees of the parliaments, and organizing training seminars in the field of scrutiny of the executive for new members of the parliaments. More importantly, the paper emphasizes the need for the consolidation of democracy in the Arab states, especially with regards to party politics, free elections, and free press. International actors may support these developments, but only through international organizations.

More importantly, the paper emphasizes the need for the consolidation of democracy in the Arab states, especially with regards to party politics, free elections, and free press.

International actors may support these developments, but only through international organizations.
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Towards an Agenda to Develop The Action of Arab Parliaments
Dr. Ali Al Sawwi Professor of Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt

The study covers the major sectors of the development of parliamentary work in the Arab world over the last decade:
-         At the institutional level: the organizational structure of the Parliament and its main units
-         At the technical level: the qualification of the staff in the various departments and technical units, and the technical bodies assisting the Parliament's general secretariat
-         At the political level: the level of support to the work for the parliamentarians themselves

The study presents practical ideas to proceed with the institutional development of the Arab Parliaments. The most important ones concerns how to:
-         Improve the research and documentation sector,
-         Improve the functioning of the Parliament's committees,
-         Better train the staff on parliamentary work
-         Better expose parliamentarians to various parliamentary experiences in the modern world

The study relied on the personal experience of its author as a consultant in the program of institutional development of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Egyptian's People's Assembly as well as on case studies from a number of Parliaments, and personal contacts with a number of parliamentarians and experts from different countries.

Among the recommendations of the study are:
-         The need to publish and give large access to the proceedings of the parliamentary sessions;
-         The need to establish a modern and efficient archiving and bill tracking system;
-         The need to insure a large media coverage of parliamentary debates;
-         The need to explore ways of providing support for individual parliamentarian's work such as legislative aides, personal offices, constituency relations budgets, custom made research and documentation services and others;
-         A better use of the potential of parliamentary study tours and exchange programs;
-         The possible generalization of the ministry for parliamentary affairs, which exists in some countries, to improve on the relationship between the Executive and Legislative Institutions;
-         The importance of benefiting from and collaborating with universities, independent research centers, think-tanks, and civil society organizations;
-         The possible establishment of an Arab Institute for Parliamentary Studies and a yearly Arab Parliamentary Report
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Legislative Functions of the Arab Parliaments: Comparative Study
Dr. Azza Wehbe Senior Researcher, People's Assembly, Egypt

This study aims at analyzing the legislative performance of Arab Parliaments by focusing on the experiences of five countries, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Yemen. The study covers the period between 1990- 2000 since international and regional transformations that took place in the last decade have left a very significant impact on the Arab democratic process in general and the Arab Legislatures in particular.

Based on the constitutions of the five countries and the bylaws of their respective parliaments, the paper discusses the roles of executive and legislative authorities in the legislative process. It highlights the dominant role of the executive by showing the existing gap between the constitutional text and the practice of legislation over the last decade.

The study sheds the light on the different political, economic and social contexts, within which these parliaments operate, and which tend to affect, positively or negatively, the various functions of legislatures.

Beside the societal context, the attitudes and affiliations of the various political and social forces represented within the parliament are considered as an additional independent variable affecting the legislating performance of parliaments. In this context, this paper tried to monitor the positions of these forces in order to assess their impact on the legislative process.

The paper then presents the various efforts and initiatives to improve the performance of the legislative function of parliaments. For example, the paper reviewed the Lebanese experience with the modernization of laws and the Egyptian experience with collection and codification of laws.

The study concluded that the improvement of Arab parliament performance is a multi dimensional process. At the constitutional level, constitutional reform is needed to address the imbalance between the legislative and executive authorities. At the political level, the whole democratic process in the Arab world should be pushed forward in terms of strengthening party structures, securing free and democratic elections and increasing the participation of civil society. Finally, technical factors should be emphasized, like an efficient administrative apparatus capable of providing an advisory role to deputies, well prepared and qualified parliamentarians capable of performing efficiently their legislative and oversight roles, a set of advanced technical capacities helping to provide a sustainable level of good parliamentary performance, and finally an exchange of parliamentary experiences on a large scale.