Post-Communist and Post-Soviet Legislatures: Beyond Transition

Legislatures exist in most countries, but there has been relatively little examination of how they come into being and contribute to the development of a stable polity. The emergence of new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe creates an unrivalled opportunity to examine the transition of legislatures from non-democratic to democratic regimes. Taking political stability as our dependent variable, we advance hypotheses about legislative development. Our principal foci at the systemic level are the electoral process, the party system and the distribution of power between the executive and the legislature. Our foci within the institution are the members and the rules, procedures and structures. We also compare the nature of change in the adjustment phase of legislative development between the Southern and Central European post-authoritarian parliaments.