Introduction to Legislatures

Legislatures are vital political institutions, as they are the primary law-making body for a society. However, they can be structured and work in many different ways. On this page, you can connect to a variety of legislative bodies around the world. As well, you will find links to sites that provide the full text of the laws of a number of countries. 

There are significant differences between parliamentary and congressional forms of government. The key characteristic of parliamentary systems lies in responsible government, wherein the executive is at once accountable to the legislature, but also plays a key role in directing its work. In a congressional system such as the United States, the executive is not accountable to the legislature and individual legislators have a much more independent role to play in developing and approving legislation.

 Eugene Forsey provides a clear overview of the Canadian system of government in  How Canadians Govern Themselves.

The U.S. House of Representatives provides an interesting document on-line, How Our Laws Are Made, which explains the legislative process in the American congressional system.





LEGISLATURES OF THE WORLD 

The Inter-Parliamentary Union provides some interesting information on legislatures around the world. For example, you can look up statistics on the number of women in national parliaments. You can also search the IPU database for a great range of other specific information. For example, you can search for a particular country and find documents that explain the composition of the two houses of parliament, the results of the latest election, and the breakdown of MPs by party, age, and professional background.

Many legislatures in foreign countries maintain web sites, where you can find out information about their structure and internal rules. As well, several sites allow you to read the full text of recent debates and the draft legislation being considered. Because the depth and variety of material provided is different at each site, you should explore to see just what is offered on-line.

Canadian Legislatures
Canadian legislatures generally provide a wealth of information at their web sites. For example, the Parliament of Canada provides on-line details of the rules of procedure, and the full debates in both the House of Commons and Senate. In addition, the transcripts of committee hearings and the final reports of most parliamentary committees are only available to the public in the electronic version provided on-line. To find out how a law is made in Canada, read the Privy Council's summary of the legislative process. 

For much more detail on Canadian legislative sites, including links to all the provincial legislatures, visit the Legislatures page in Nelson's Canadian Politics on the Web section of this site.



World Legislatures
Below you will find links to legislatures in different countries. You can see how many chambers each legislature has and connect to the site for that chamber, or to an English language description of that chamber's structure and functions. While all of the legislatures listed have at least one elected chamber, you will notice that there is a great variety of ways in which the upper houses of bicameral legislatures are constituted in order to represent regional or cultural interests. 

Australian Parliament - bicameral. The 148 members of the lower house, the House of Representatives, are popularly elected. The 76 members of the upper house, the Senate, are also elected by the people.

Austrian Federal Assembly - bicameral. The 183 members of the lower house, the Nationalrat, are elected by the people. The 64 members of the upper house, the Bundesrat are elected by the legislatures of each of the provinces (diets). Descriptions of the structure and roles of the two houses are available in English, but the main body of information at the central parliamentary site is available only in German. However, you can access an interesting English-language document on the history and nature of parliamentary government in Austria.

National Congress of Chile - bicameral. The 120 members of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, are directly elected. And 38 of the 46 members of the upper house, the Senate, are also elected by the people. Nine members hold seats ex-officio, and former Presidents of the Republic of Chile who have held office for six continuous years are also entitled to a seat. Note that material at this site is available only in Spanish.

French Parliament - bicameral. The 577 members of the lower house, the National Assembly, are popularly elected. The 321 members of the upper house, the Senate, are representatives of the municipal and regional administrative units (départments) and are elected by an electoral college; one-third of the Senate's members are elected every two years. Note that much of the material at this site is available only in French, although the description of the Senate is in English.

German Parliament - bicameral. The members of the lower house, the Bundestag, are directly elected; the exact number of members varies with each election, but the base number is 656 and there are currently 672 members. The 69 members of the upper house, the Bundesrat, are representatives of the state (land) governments; each state has some permanent delegates, as well as others who are members of the state government.

Parliament of Great Britain - bicameral. The 659 members of the lower house, the House of Commons, are elected by the people. The BBC provides live coverage of activities in the U.K. House of Commons. Until recently, the majority of members of the House of Lords were hereditary members, but many other held their seats for life (without hereditary rights to their offspring). However, the British Government reformed the Lords in 1999 and now the upper chamber of the British Parliament has 687 members, with only 75 Hereditary Peers holding seats; 24 Bishops and Archbishops of the Church of England continue to be members of the House of Lords also.  The House of Lords Bill, removed the right of hereditary title holders to sit as members of the House of Lords. See also the report of the Royal Commission on Reforming the House of Lords and the BBC's site on Reform of the Lords.

Indian Parliament - bicameral. The 545 members of the lower house, the Lok Sabha, are popularly elected. Up to 238 members of the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, are indirectly elected by the 27 state legislatures, while another 12 members are appointed by the President of India.



Irish Parliament (Oireachtas) - bicameral. The 166 members of the lower house, the House of Representatives (Dàil Éireann), are directly elected. There are three ways in which 60 members of the upper house, the Senate (Seanad Éireann), reach office: 11 are nominated by the Prime Minister, 43 are elected from five panels of candidates divided by occupation, 3 are elected by the National University of Ireland, and 3 are elected by the University of Dublin (Trinity College). 

Israeli Knesset - unicameral. All 120 members of the Knesset are popularly elected.

Parliament of Pakistan - bicameral. The 217 members of the lower house, the National Assembly, are elected by the people. The 87 members of the upper house, the Senate, are representatives of different administrative units in Pakistan. Each of the four provincial legislatures elects 19 senators, with five of that delegation being drawn from occupational or religious categories. Eight senators represent the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and they are elected by members of the National Assembly who are from those areas. In addition, three senators represent the Federal Capital Area and are elected by the National Assembly as a whole.

Russian Federal Assembly - bicameral. The 450 members of the lower house, the Duma, are popularly elected. The 178 members of the upper house, the Federation Council, are not elected. Each of the 89 administrative units of the Russian Federation have two ex-officio representatives: the Governor and chair of the local legislature. Note that these two links are to unofficial information sites in the U.S. The Duma has an official site with all material in Russian.

South African Parliament - bicameral. The 400 members of the lower house, the National Assembly, are elected by the people. There are 90 members of the upper house, the National Council of Provinces, who act as representatives of the nine provincial legislatures. Each province has 6 permanent delegates and 4 special members; each delegation is headed up by the premier of the province.

United States Congress - bicameral. The 435 members of the lower house, the House of Representatives, are all directly elected every two years. There are 100 members in the upper house, the Senate, who are directly elected. Two senators represent each state and, every two years, elections are held for one-third of the Senate's seats. Much useful information on the business of the lower house is provided by The Office of the Clerk On-Line Information Center U.S. House of Representatives. Another very useful site is Congress.Org.

 International and Regional Parliaments and Assemblies
The European Parliament is an assembly of 626 elected politicians who have certain legislative powers to make laws binding in member states of the EU. 

The Nordic Council is an assembly of 87 legislators drawn from the five Nordic member states' parliaments and some other observer states.  


LAWS

On the Internet, one can find the full text of many laws from jurisdictions around the world.

For Canadian laws, visit the Canadian Law page of this site. There you will find links to the statutes and court decisions from both the federal and provincial levels of government.

For the texts of law in countries around the world, visit The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.