Empowering the Parliaments of Regional Intergovernmental Organisations: The Case of the East African Legislative Assembly

Regional intergovernmental organisations in the Global South have increasingly been establishing legislative organs that represent their citizens, and not their member states, in decision-making. In the 1970s, the Andean Community created the Andean Parliament, the 1990s saw others such as Mercosur follow the trend; while the 2000s saw the emergence of the Arab Parliament (Arab League) and the Pan-African Parliament (the African Union). Overall, there are 14 regional parliaments that are integral organs of regional organisations. What is puzzling about this trend is that these regions are characterised by states where executives dominate both the national and supranational legislative process. This suggests that the fledgling regional parliaments with no claim to sovereignty will struggle to fulfil their mandates of representing citizens. The rise of regional parliaments and their possible effects on decision-making nevertheless matter: the debate on how to democratise global governance is rife and in desperate need of realisable solutions, especially in the Global South. With decision-making and policies becoming more transnational, it is imperative that citizens are able to access international fora in order to contribute their voices and hold executives, the usual decision-makers in international relations, to account. It is also critical that the parliaments gain competencies and devise strategies that allow them to fulfil their mandates. However, research on the role, impact, and prospects of international parliaments in global governance has seriously emerged only in the last decade. There is a significant need for better conceptualisation of these parliaments and theorising about the way they operate. More specifically, very little case study research has been done on African regional parliaments. This paper addresses this gap by examining the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to determine legislative-executive dynamics at the supranational level in the Global South. EALA is the only other regional parliament in the world apart from the European Parliament (EP) to have legislative powers and whose members are not merely delegates drawn from national parliaments. EALA can initiate Bills and pass Acts that are binding on the Community, and it also has budgetary oversight powers. Unlike the EP, however, EALA’s member states are some of the least democratic governments in the world, with executives (especially presidents) that are overwhelmingly powerful in national and supranational politics. Given this hostile context, and these rare legislative powers, the question is how EALA is managing its role in executive-legislative relations at the supranational level. In particular, the paper highlights a) how EALA is actually used by its MPs and the regional organisation, and b) how it manages its relations with the executive branch of the East African Community (EAC) to maximise its input on policy. In doing so this paper will develop important concepts and theory about these fledgling institutions in international relations.