Measuring governing parties’ influence, values reflect the ratio of pro-government committee chairpersons to the number of deputies (different years). Lower ratios translate into higher scores. Source: Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Pro-government committee chairs scores

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Pro-government committee chairs

To ensure comparability, observed values are transformed into SGI scores on a scale from 1 to 10. The lowest value translates into score 1, the best value into score 10. Remaining values are transformed according to the original data distribution.

Value

Score

1	France	0.012	10.00
2	Germany	0.019	9.77
3	Hungary	0.021	9.70
4	Mexico	0.022	9.67
5	Sweden	0.023	9.63
6	Italy	0.024	9.60
7	Portugal	0.030	9.40
8	Japan	0.031	9.37
8	Turkey	0.031	9.37
10	Poland	0.033	9.30
11	Norway	0.036	9.20
12	South Korea	0.037	9.17
13	Slovakia	0.040	9.07
14	UK	0.046	8.87
15	Belgium	0.053	8.64
15	Greece	0.053	8.64
17	Finland	0.055	8.57
17	Switzerland	0.055	8.57
17	USA	0.055	8.57
20	Denmark	0.061	8.37
21	Spain	0.063	8.31
22	Canada	0.065	8.24
23	Czech Rep.	0.070	8.07
24	New Zealand	0.098	7.14
25	Netherlands	0.100	7.08
26	Ireland	0.103	6.98
27	Austria	0.120	6.41
28	Australia	0.133	5.98
28	Chile	0.133	5.98
30	Iceland	0.143	5.65
31	Luxembourg	0.283	1.00

Key concepts

The legislature’s role in governance consists in interpreting popular interests and evaluating, not simply implementing, executive proposals. An effective legislature will not only challenge the normative justification of governmental polices, but deepen the terrain in which they are grounded by drawing upon research and expert knowledge.

The structure of a legislative body can significantly influence the efficiency of its work, however. Committees that are too large or too small will find it difficult to work, while having too many or too few committees will make it more difficult to efficiently monitor ministry activity.

Critical too is the availability of expert analysis and research, either directly on individual legislators’ staff or serving the legislature as a whole. Parliaments with comparatively limited expert research resources may have more difficulty in critiquing executive proposals.

Performance comparison

Use drop-down menus for selections. In all cases, higher scores reflect better performance.