ABSTRACT
Legislatures, whether they operate in a separation-of-powers system, i.e., 'congresses', or in a fused power system, i.e., 'parliaments', play a crucial role in the political decision-making process. This chapter provides a general framework to study policy analysis and support in parliaments, building on the available secondary literature to explore cross-country trends, similarities and differences. The empirical data is based on a variety of cases: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, the European 'level', Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In asymmetrical bicameral systems, the chapter focuses on the lower house. It analyses the internal parliamentary actors that provide policy support to legislators. More specifically, the chapter assess how the personal assistants to Members of Parliament (MPs), advisors to political groups, and general parliamentary support services contribute to parliamentary policy analysis. It examines the political structures and instruments that give legislators the opportunity to incorporate information from the government and expertise from external actors in their work.
