This article argues that parliamentary bureaucracies are ‘silent’ organisations playing a fundamentally serving function, and yet they offer a crucial contribution to the well-functioning of representative assemblies.
The article stresses the importance of parliamentary administrations arguing that it would be virtually impossible for parliaments to play a meaningful role within a given political system without the support of an independent and well-equipped administrative structure. This applies to the whole range of parliamentary functions: legislative work requires the availability of reliable documentation at its base and, above all, the skills to ensure the quality of legislative drafting with regard to bills and amendments to be passed in parliament.
The article was written by Thomas Christiansen; Elena Griglio and Nicola Lupo (Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, Roma, Itália) published by the The Journal of Legislative Studies.
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