ABSTRACT
Legislatures in Asia represent a particularly diverse set of parliaments when com-
pared with the rest of the world. For example, unlike Latin America, where legisla-
tures mostly follow the congressional model, Western Europe with the continental
model or the Pacific region where the Westminster model has a special appeal, no
single model predominates in Asia. Instead, legislatures are patterned on all three
models – congressional,Westminster and continental. Even communist legislatures
exist in the region. Diversity, however, exists not only in the form that a legislature
takes; it is also apparent in other features (Norton and Ahmed 1999, p. 2). The sig-
nificance of such diversity has been explored elsewhere (Norton 1999). Suffice it to
mention here that notwithstanding some differences in their structure and organis-
ationmostAsian legislatures share a number of characteristics.As amatter of neces-
sity, most of them have to maintain close links with the citizen.
