Unit 2 Questions

Please answer each of the following questions.  If you are taking this course in a group you may then meet to discuss your answers, or join the discussion forum on these questions here.

1. What accounts for the effectiveness of parliamentary committees?
2. How important is consensus building to a parliamentary committee’s work?
3. What are the independent sources of information for effective committee functioning?
4. Why do most parliamentary committees reflect the multi-party make-up of a parliament?

Relevant Internet Resources

UNDP, Legislative Committee System [Online] Available at: http://www.undp.org/governance/docs/Parl-Pub-legiscomm.pdfLegislative
Acessed February 2007

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (2007) About the Committee
System [Online] Available at: http://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/5-2.htm. Accessed February 2007

 

Selected Bibliography

Jefferson T. (1812) A Manual of Parliamentary Practice: for the use of the Senate
of the United States. [Online]. [Available at: http://www.constitution.org/tj/tj-mpp.htm [Accessed January 2007]

Ogle, D. B. (2004) National Parliament-Republic of Timor-Leste: Manual for Parliamentary Committee. The United Nations Development Programmed.
New York.

Owens, J E. and Loomis B. A. (2006) Qualified Exceptionalism: The US
congress in comparative perspective. The Journal of Legislative Studies.
Vol., 12. No 3 & 4 pp. 258 – 290.

 

Additional Reading

The Way Forward - Lessons from Ghana’s Parliamentary Committees Available at: http://www.parlcent.ca/africa/papers/Publication%20Elmina%20Wkshp%
202004.pdf Accessed January 2007

Pak-Kwan, Chua (2003) Chairmanship of parliamentary committees in
selected areas [Online] Available at http://www.bibliotheque.assnat.qc.ca/01/mono/2004/04/768683.pdf
Accessed March 2007.