One of the most significant changes in the British House of Commons has been the development in 1979 of a system of select committees charged with monitoring government ministries. Unlike previous experiments in parliamentary reform, these committees are staffed exclusively with backbench MPs, who regularly review executive policies and offer recommendations. Michael Jogerst reappraises the relationship between the executive and legislative branches in light of these new circumstances, which are likely to affect the entire governmental structure of the United Kingdom.

Here, Reuven Y. Hazan argues that committees are essential for the efficient dispatch of parliamentary business and shows how several parliaments have recently reformed their committee systems to function more effectively. In particular, he gives an in-depth knowledge and a broader understanding of Israel's committees and how they compare with the committees of other legislatures throughout the world.

This book is intended for students of constitutional law and British politics and government, lawyers, politicians and government officials.

The Impact of Legislatures brings together key articles and path-breaking scholarship published in The Journal of Legislative Studies during its first 25 years of publication, enabling the reader to make sense of the impact of legislatures in the modern world. Encompassing theory, comparative analysis, and county-based empirical studies, the volume examines the impact of legislatures as the key representative institutions of nations, addressing their relationships both to government and to the people. Legislatures are ubiquitous. They provide legitimacy to measures of public policy and to government. As such, they are key to how a nation is governed. But they do much more than confer legitimacy. They are generally multi-functional and functionally adaptable bodies, and are an essential link between citizen and government. However, scholarship on them has not been extensive and has often been descriptive and country- specific, limiting the capacity to make sense of them as a particular species of institution. The chapters in this volume reflect scholarship that helps the reader appreciate the significance of the place and consequences of legislatures, examining not only the relationship between the legislature and the executive, but also the oft-neglected relationship between legislatures and the people. Reflecting the growing body of research in the field of legislative studies, carried by The Journal of Legislative Studies since its inception in 1995, The Impact of Legislatures is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the impact of legislatures in the world today.