Assessing democratic quality and performance in legislatures

Jalali Naini, Mandana

Abstract

This thesis looks into the possibility of assessing legislative performance and democratic quality using performance management frameworks and methods used for organisational development and change and whether measurement of this kind is beneficial to improving democratic quality and the legitimation of the political system in general. Political institutions and in particular legislatures are often immune from the adverse effects of poor performance due to large budget allocations regardless of efficacy. Furthermore a rise in efficiency is often seen as a threat to the institution's accountability. The literature on legislative performance is mainly confined to legislative policy making output which is not necessarily a sign of good performance. Neither is performance only about the consideration of the costs and resource utilisation or the behaviour of actors and individuals in the policy making process as dependent variables. As mentioned such considerations seem rather irrelevant to the performance of legislative outcomes since legislatures usually do not have budgetary or spending concerns as in the private sector ....

Citation

Jalali Naini, M. Assessing democratic quality and performance in legislatures. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4213070

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Sep 25, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 22, 2023
• Keywords: Politics
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4213070
• Additional Information: Department of Politics and International Studies, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Dec 1, 2009