The Stability of Legislation - the Case Study of Hungary1990-2014

While the quality of legislation is one of the fundamental issues in political theory, quantitative analysis of the subject are in short supply in the political science literature. The present study argues that the legislative quality is directly affected by legislative stability. Thus we formulate a proposal for a legislative stability (LS) measurement scheme, and develop an index to this end. The key to the LS index is a system of categories concerning the frequency with which laws are amended after their adoption. We also test this index using a new database based on Hungarian legislative activity. Regression results show that the term of government was the most significant variable in explaining variation in the stability of legislation.