Introduction

Parliaments or legislatures are the keystone of democratic governance and they are critical in securing government accountability. On the one hand, legislatures are representative bodies: they reflect the sentiments and opinions of the populace. On the other hand, they are the prime source of law by which a country is governed. The union of these two features qualifies their significance in democratic polities (Olson 1994: 1). In fact for Lijphart (1991: Ix), “Legislatures should probably be regarded as the most important institutions in a democracy”.