Theorizing parliamentary staff

There is a small but growing literature on the staffs of national parliaments outside of the U.S. Congress. These are mostly single country studies studying one type of staff (e.g. PPG, personal, institutional or committee staffs) or one role that staff can play. What the literature is currently missing is an integrated theoretical perspective on the role of staff that takes into account the diversity in the way that parliamentary staffs are organized in democratic countries. This paper builds further on role theory in parliamentary studies to develop an integrated perspective that specifically address the place of staff in the democratic process. We recognize four types of staff that may be present to a greater or lesser extent in different parliaments, that have different principals (PPG staff, personal staff, institutional or committee staff). These different staffs can play different roles (advisor, scribe, advertiser, information broker, planner and compromise facilitator). Our central expectation is that the reliance of type of staff over another in these different roles affects how democratic systems perform: a focus on committee and institutional staff leads to a focus on the impact of policies and with that output legitimacy. A focus on personal or PPG staff leads to a focus of the support of policies and with that input legitimacy.