ABSTRACT
This chapter examines three traditional sources of legislative power as they developed in the last three years of Soviet parliamentary history. These legislative prerogatives were the confirmation of executive personnel, law-making, and the oversight of executive agencies. In European parliamentary systems, the power of the legislature rests most directly on its ability to approve and remove a Government. A universal feature of modern government is the executive's superior access to information and expertise. A monumental challenge for the Soviet parliament and now for the parliaments in the successor states was to develop from scratch access to information and expertise, both from the executive and from its own and independent sources. The consideration of Ryzhkov's nominees by the full Supreme Soviet resulted in a defeat for the prime minister in several portfolios. At the end of the 1980s, the democratization campaign in the USSR set off a chain reaction in Soviet politics.
