ABSTRACT
Legalistically, the formal responsibility for making laws everywhere rests with the legislature. In practice, as observed in an earlier chapter, legislatures share lawmaking functions with other actors, especially the executive. Laws are unique resources that governments need, among others, to survive in power. As Mechelen and Rose (1986, p.8) observe, 'Laws are an input as well as an output... Laws influence other resources of government and sustain the momentum of programmes’. In order to understand government, 'we must understand the role of law. Acts of parliament constitute the stuff of law’ (Mechelen and Rose, p.8). This chapter examines the legislative orientation of the government identifying, for example, the nature of laws it has proposed to the JS and the methods used to establish its dominance in the legislative process. It compares the legislative behaviour of the private member and the government, examining the difference, if any, and explaining the reasons that cause it. The chapter also provides a comparative assessment of the legislative orientation of private members of different JSs. The final section explores the limits of government domination in the legislative process.
