Legislative autonomy in new regimes: The Czech and Polish cases

The recent wave of democratization worldwide has focused attention on the e volution of legislatures in new democracies. In regimes where potent execut ives-either presidential, parliamentary, or hybrid-exist alongside new legi slatures, it is necessary to distinguish the idea of legislative autonomy f rom that of effectiveness. We emphasize the centrality of the second concep t to understanding representative institutions in recent transitions. We pr ovide case studies of the lower legislative chambers in Poland and the Czec h Republic during the past decade, describing the evolution of the party an d committee systems, the structure of legislative leadership, and its relat ionship to the executive. Finally, we examine the role of the legislature i n drafting and overseeing the execution of policy, paying particular attent ion to budget bills as bellwethers of legislative autonomy and the cohesive ness of parties and coalitions. We conclude that both the Polish Sejm and t he Czech Parliament have developed much of the internal institutional frame work to support legislative autonomy, and that in the Czech case in particu lar, recent experiences with minority government are contributing to this t rend.