ABSTRACT
This chapter examines parliamentary accountability in Portugal and Spain. Both countries offer legislative actors several instruments to fight information asymmetries, moral hazard, and to give indirizzo to the executive. In this chapter, we look at parliamentary written questions, question time, interpellations, committee systems, parliamentary hearings, and votes of no-confidence as mechanisms to keep tabs on the executive. We suggest that politics plays an instrumental role in organising parliamentary accountability in the two countries. The accountability game is dependent on the dynamics of party government and the opposition’s strategy. The chapter shows that Iberian legislatures have similar accountability structures, but the Spanish case has a slightly more developed accountability system in committees.
