The Functions, Powers and ‘Decline’ of Parliaments

Abstract

With a few exceptions the Nine’s national parliaments adopted both their constitutional role and their legislative procedures many years ago. Then, both the parliaments and the political systems within which they operated faced vastly different problems from those which challenge them today. Since the end of the Second World War the following — and this is no more than a partial catalogue of such events — have radically affected the viability of legislative institutions: the increase of bureaucratic involvement in the initiation and implementation of public policy; the increased size and ever-expanding role of central government; the increasing importance of international organisations, agencies and bodies and the implications these have had for national sovereignty; the growth of multinational corporations and the problems of controlling their activities and ensuring their responsibility; the tendency of governments to consult with pressure groups and interested organisations before a measure is drafted and introduced into the legislature; and so on. By far the most important of these events lies in the fact that governments have, over the years, taken on an ever-expanding array of tasks: this point is typically illustrated by reference to increase in phenomena such as the level of government expenditure, the quality and quantity of enacted legislation and delegated legislation, the number of local and national civil servants, etc.¹

There is … an increasingly important and influential school of thought which maintains that the problem of legitimacy in the Communities is intimately associated with the functions of Parliament, and that in this respect it is necessary to increase the powers of the European Parliament until that function is properly performed. This reasoning is based, not only on the view that legitimacy is lacking in the Community institutions as they are now but also on the related view that the transfer of functions from a national to a Community level weakens the National Parliaments and that some substitute parliamentary function must be provided at a Community level. What is needed in this argument, however, is a much more precise and realistic understanding of the role of National Parliaments. What has been particularly lacking is an articulation of what parliamentary functions really are.

David Coombes, ‘Introductory Study to Papers on National Parliaments’, in Directorate-General for Research and Documentation of the European Parliament (ed.), Symposium on European Integration and the Future of Parliaments in Europe (European Parliament, 1975) pp. 23–6, at p. 23.