Legislative Power in Emerging African Democracies (review)

As Joel Barkan maintains in the introduction to this fine volume, while scholars working on legislative politics have tended to overlook the African context, so too have those investigating the continent's politics left legislatures relatively unexamined. This volume makes substantial strides in correcting this omission and presents important insights that will advance understandings and future research on these critical institutions. The book devotes itself to understanding the varied character, sources, and impact of legislative power in the African context. Along with strong introductory and concluding chapters, it consists of case studies that explore the nature and evolution of legislative institutions in six countries. While the book, according to the editor, represents an "exploratory" study (23), it is still an unqualified success.

The introductory chapter by Joel Barkan establishes the intellectual parameters for the volume. This includes a basic, but highly instructive, overview of the key "functions" of legislatures within democratic political systems and a very fine discussion of how African legislatures have operated historically. Building from the observation that the experiences and strengths of legislatures have varied in the multiparty era, Barkan then presents a set of theoretical arguments and hypotheses to help account for patterns of legislative development. The key, he maintains, are the incentive structures encountered by legislators themselves. While these are conditioned by institutional and contextual variables, they also depend on whether a "coalition for change" emerges within the legislature to reshape incentive structures in ways that enhance legislative authority and capacity. The presence, power, and composition of these coalitions substantially determine the power and performance of legislative institutions.

The Barkan and Matiangi chapter on Kenya and the chapter by Kasfir and Twebaze on Uganda are among those that engage most clearly with the theoretical issues raised in the introduction. The former offers an account of the rise of the Kenyan legislature with attention to its increasingly visible role and the specific reforms that have advanced its autonomy and capacity. An active coalition for change, spurred on by elements of civil society, has been the key force propelling such developments. The account of the Ugandan Parliament highlights a similar story of increasing parliamentary power, although its power and legislative autonomy have ebbed during more recent times. From 1995 to 2001 advances in parliamentary assertiveness, capacity, and autonomy were facilitated by the "no party" context, which created an environment in which reformist coalitions could form and advance legal changes unhindered by party discipline. Yet the autonomy of later parliaments weakened as party discipline came to play a larger role and the executive undermined legislative independence.

Chapters by Lindberg and Zhou and by Lewis are equally effective in analyzing varying patterns of parliamentary performance and development. Lindberg and Zhou's chapter on Ghana demonstrates empirically how parliamentary performance has declined over time, even as the country has become more democratic. Much of this decline is due to increasing manipulation by the executive, which faced stronger incentives to foster legislative docility as party competition increased and the balance of power in the legislature became more tentative. The Nigerian case study by Lewis, by contrast, presents the story of a legislature that has clearly advanced in terms of its capacities, activities in oversight/investigation, and assertiveness vis-à-vis the executive. However, a legacy of venality and rent-seeking continue to haunt the legislature, undermining its popular support and efficacy.

The final chapter by Barkan effectively summarizes some of the key insights presented in the volume. Of special value is his overview of the most significant variables affecting the emergence of coalitions for change and their capacity to generate reforms that enable legislative performance. Key factors include the relative presence or absence of "reformers" in the institution, the extent to which presiding officers are committed to promoting legislative power, and the character of parties and party discipline.

The virtues of the collection are many. Unlike the selections in many edited books, the chapters in this volume cohere quite well since the authors address...