ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the variation of institutional features of committee systems across 33 legislatures from parliamentary systems, including France (semi-presidential). It first describes variations in committee systems across parliaments according to each item. In a second step, the variation in committee systems is analysed. The analysis summarises formal committee structures using the concept of committee autonomy. Committee autonomy describes the degree to which members or outsiders influence decision-making processes in committees. A multi-item index measures committee autonomy in an original data set. More autonomous committees are established in those legislatures that face a higher workload, thus providing evidence for the informational rationale. The data also provided support for the ‘keeping tabs on coalition partners’ logic of committees. Holding all other factors constant, the results indicate that more autonomous committees are established when the government regularly consists of multiple parties.
