ABSTRACT
In this study, we restate, reassess and extend the approach and findings of a research essay of 1996 which explored the scholarly literature dealing with the role and dynamics of parliaments as institutions that undergo change within themselves and that support and enhance change in the larger regime, and consider the roles of parliamentary members and leaders in this process. One central theory of scholarship dealing with parliamentary change, that of legislative institutionalisation, is again examined and found wanting as an explanation of change in mature parliamentary institutions. In brief analyses of five instances of parliamentary change, it is shown that parliaments can change in a wide variety of contexts and conditions – including such well-established legislatures as the United States Congress after over 200 years of evolution. A substantial case study, ‘The Institution and The Freshmen’, interprets two instances of change in the US House of Representatives resulting from generational change and leadership initiative and traces resulting patterns of institutional and member adaptability and consistency. As in the 1996 study, we conclude that there is no ‘end of history’ in parliamentary change, only the possibility of sometimes startling change from what has gone before, as well as more subtle legislative continuities. The examination of various instances of parliamentary change also supports the thesis that parliamentary institutional change, and regime change enhanced by parliamentary change, are inexorably linked. To modify Bagehot, parliaments are indeed great and open councils of considerable men and women placed in the middle of a society, and their actions do indeed alter that society. Democratic parliaments are not mere institutions for the playing out of advantage and power on the part of parliamentarians. They are also crucially important institutions linking citizens to their larger polity, to their regime. To the extent that they are vibrant entities, adapting and changing in accord with the wishes of those governed, they are also a source of vitality and energy in their nation and facilitators of its constructive adjustment to changing need.
