Comparative Politics of Legislatures

Undergraduate catalogue

This course examines the workings of legislatures in a comparative setting.The course will look at the internal workings of legislative institutions, and at the relationship between electoral systems and legislative outcomes. We will consider and compare parliamentary and presidential systems, unicameral and bicameral legislatures. The course will look at the determinants of cabinet duration in parliamentary systems, and the emergence of committee systems. We will also take up the linkage between electoral systems and the structure of political parties, and the reasons for political parties to emerge from within and outside the legislature.