Dimensions of Committee Strength: The Legislative and Oversight Functions of the Israeli Committee System

Parliamentary committees were created to help legislatures perform their legislative work more effectively, especially in their legislative and oversight roles. Although recent studies in the comparative legislative studies literature have examined the evolution of different types of legislative committees in terms of their general strength and autonomy (Martin 2011; André, Depauw and Martin 2015; Mickler 2017), they overlook the crucial distinction between committee strength on the respective dimensions of legislation and oversight. This creates a major lacuna since committees may have very different degrees of strength and autonomy in fulfilling these two principal functions: in some cases, committees may be either weak or strong on both of these dimensions while in other cases they may be strong on one but weak on the other. The Israeli parliamentary committee system demonstrates the second. A historical examination of the committee system in the Knesset since the eighties shows that in its legislative role the Knesset committees show impressive strength, while in their oversight role they demonstrate weakness and inefficiency. The core question is what makes the Israeli committee system so diverse? Findings show that while some historical, institutional, political, procedural and personal characteristics strengthen its legislative function, others weaken its ability to act effectively in its oversight function. These findings allow us to develop a general continuum, which on its one side committee systems will be weak in their legislative and oversight functions and on its opposite side committee systems will be strong in both functions. However, this continuum is not entirely dichotomous. Across the scale, we will find example(s), which demonstrate diversity – strong in one function and weak in another. Checking the cases along the continuum will help us map more precisely what are the specific characteristics that affect committees' work, in what function and can it be improved for the sake of democracy.