Explaining Legislative Organization

What explains how legislatures choose to organize themselves? Although committees constitute one of the most significant and well-researched forms of internal legislative organizations, the nature and causes of variations in committee structures among different legislatures has received little consideration. We suggest that strong committees emerge as a structural solution to the needs of each party in a coalition government to keep tabs on each other. This proposition is tested against alternative explanations of internal legislative design using new data on committee structures from 31 national assemblies. The evidence in favor of the impact of government form on legislative structures receives supplemental support from a case study tracing the reorganization and strengthening of committees in the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) following Ireland’s shift from single party to multi-party government.