The Functions of Legislatures in the Third World

The research on Third World legislatures reviewed here has dealt with the structure of these institutions; with their decision-making and representational functions; with their impact on the process of societal change, particularly in regard to elite recruitment, integration, mobilization, legitimization, and socioeconomic policy-making; and with those factors that affect the development of the legislature itself, particularly the institution's relationship with the people, the bureaucracy, and political parties. Theoretical work on legislative institutionalization and on categorizations of legislatures is also considered. Some observations are then offered concerning the relationship between this work and other subdisciplines of political science, as well as its relationship to the more general area of legislative research.