Title: Transferability of parliamentary experience: The Russian example
Abstract: The article looks at the development of parliamentary institutions and procedures in Russia and the extent to which Russian politicians have been interested in learning from ‘mature’ democracies. There are few examples of parliamentary practices being transplanted without significant adaptation. The debate in Russia on the role of parliament indicates that the idea of imitating foreign models has to compete with the powerful notion of rediscovering a national democratic tradition and both are used rhetorically to support particular interests. Parliamentary rules and practices are organically linked with party organisation, with the balance of parties at any given time, with electoral law, and with the relationship of the executive to the legislative branch. Changes in political habits take time. International contacts are valuable because they lend confidence and authority to those who are working to build on democratic habits, but it is more important that parliamentarians and officials should find solutions which are internally consistent, which work with the grain of their own slowly evolving political culture and which reflect the most positive of their own traditions, than that they should assemble best practice from around the world.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
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