Legislatures and Legislators

Legislatures are constitutionally-established bodies with one core defining function, that of giving binding assent to measures of public policy, that assent being given on behalf of a body that extends beyond those responsible for drawing up the policy.;This volume aims to bring together journal articles that can further the understanding of legislatures as essential dymanic complex bodies. Part one comprises articles which have, to some extent, advanced our knowledge of the different relationships that exist within a legislature, the first two articles draw out the party components of a legislature and the relevance of the size of those components in government formation, and show the importance of numbers in gaining and holding power, but also the significance of ideology. It is an exposition of the different political groupings that can and do exist and the number and complexity of relationships between those groupings.;The second part of the text looks at the literature that explores the extent to which differences within legislatures are determined by institutional structures, rules and norms. The final part looks at the relationship traditionally covered by the literature, that of the legislature to the making of the law. The articles presented aim to serve three purposes. One is to draw out the compexity of legislature, the second is to provide the reader with the principal articles within themes derived from this primary purpose, and the third is to serve as a prompt to further research.