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The Emerging Morphology of the World's Legislatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Samuel C. Patterson
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
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Abstract

In recent years there has been quite a growth in the corpus of research on legislatures, so that today studies of the legislature are extant for about two dozen countries. Studies of Third-World representative assemblies have demonstrated a remarkable degree of “linkage” between legislators and constituents. Alongside research on European and Asian legislatures, these inquiries make possible a better understanding of the contributions of legislative institutions to political integration. More generally, the accumulating literature on legislatures permits the construction of functional typologies which are more empirically adequate than earlier ones.

Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1978

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References

1 Comparative legislative research has been discussed in many places, but see especially Polsby, Nelson W., “Legislatures”, in Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W., eds., Governmental Institutions and Processes, V, Handbook of Political Science (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley 1975), 257319;Google ScholarPatterson, , “Comparative Legislative Behavior: A Review Essay”, Midwest Journal of Political Science, XII (November 1968), 599616;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPatterson, , “The British House of Commons as a Focus for Political Research”, British Journal of Political Science, III (July 1973), 363–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Patterson, Samuel C. and Wahlke, John C., “Trends and Prospects in Legislative Behavior Research”, in Patterson, and Wahlke, , eds., Comparative Legislative Behavior: Frontiers of Research (New York: Wiley-Interscience 1972), 289303.Google Scholar

2 The research literature on Congress is enormous, and there has been a great deal of research on state legislatures as well. For a synthesis, see Jewell, Malcolm E. and Patterson, Samuel C., The Legislative Process in the United States (3rd ed.; New York: Random House 1977).Google Scholar Recent studies of Congress have been assessed in Jewell, Malcolm E., “New Perspectives on the U. S. Congress: A Review Article”, Legislative Studies Quarterly, II (February 1977), 7791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Loewenberg, Gerhard, Parliament in the German Political System (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 1967).Google Scholar

4 See Herman, Valentine and Mendel, Françoise, Parliaments of the World (London: Macmillan 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Norton, Philip, Dissension in the House of Commons, 1945–74 (London: Macmillan 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oksanen, Matti, Kansanedustajan Rooli (Helsinki: Oy Gaudeamus Ab 1972)Google Scholar; Nyholm, Pekka, Parliament, Government and Multi-Dimensional Party Relations in Finland (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica 1972)Google Scholar; Cayrol, Roland, Parodi, Jean-Luc, and Ysmal, Colette, Le Député Francais (Paris: Armand Colin 1973)Google Scholar; Debuyst, Frederic, La Fonction Parletnentaire en Belgique: Mecanismes d'Acces et Images (Brussels: Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques 1966)Google Scholar; Holmberg, Soren, Riksdagen Representerar Svenska Folket (Lund: Studentlitteratur 1974)Google Scholar; Rausch, Heinz, Bundestag und Bundesregierung: Eine lnstitutionenkunde (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck 1976)Google Scholar; Cazzola, Franco, Governo e Opposizione nel Parlamento Italiano (Milan: Dott. A. Guiffre Editore 1974)Google Scholar; Kooiman, Jan, Over de Kamer Gesproken (The Hague: Staatsuitgeverij 1976).Google Scholar

5 Previous anthologies include Kornberg, Allan and Musolf, Lloyd D., eds., Legislatures in Developmental Perspective (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press 1970)Google Scholar; Kornberg, Allan, ed., Legislatures in Comparative Perspective (New York: David McKay 1973)Google Scholar; and Patterson and Wahlke (fn. 1).

6 Packenham, “Legislatures and Political Development”, in Kornberg and Musolf (fn. 5), 523.

7 Polsby (fn. I), 277.