The Institutionalisation of Post-Communist Parliaments: Hungary and Romania in Comparative Perspective

The main contribution of the paper to the field of legislative studies consists in redefining the concept of legislative institutionalisation so that it can account for the impact of EU institutions and policies on the parliaments of post-communist EU member states and candidate countries. The paper analyses legislative institutionalisation in the Hungarian and Romanian parliaments by focusing on six dimensions: EU policies and institutions, constitutional frameworks and the consolidation of party systems (all part of the external environment shaping legislative institutionalisation); the existence of a core group of experienced MPs, party cohesion and discipline and committee structures (grouped together as the internal characteristics of legislatures). The paper concludes that, despite differences on three of these dimensions, both countries' parliaments have reached a relatively high degree of institutionalisation since the first free and fair elections of 1990.