Parliamentary Oversight of the Executives

Elena Griglio is Senior Parliamentary Official of the Italian Senate and Adjunct Professor at Luiss University.

This is a work of consummate diligence and scholarship, which makes fascinating reading and draws an enormous amount of comparative material efficiently into an impressively concise compass. It is significant and important reading for anyone who requires or wishes to consider the efficacy of Parliamentary oversight of the Executive.

• PART ICONSTITUTIONAL FEATURES OF PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT IN EUROPE1. Introduction: Oversight of the Executives. A European Approach I. What Parliamentary Oversight Serves: In Search of a Definition II. Placing the Oversight Function in the European Constitutional Legal Order III. A Selective Approach to Parliamentary Oversight IV. The Fortune of the Oversight Function in Scholarship 2. Oversight as a Relational Function Linking Parliaments to Executives I. At the Origins of Parliamentarism in Europe II. Oversight or Scrutiny? A Comparison with Presidential Experiences III. Oversight in Contemporary European Forms of Government IV. The Influence of the Executive-Parties Dimension V. Oversight Serving the Requirements of Executive Accountability VI. The Problem of Enforcement: Comparing Hard and Soft Oversight 3. Instances of Parliamentary Oversight: In Dialogue with Other Parliamentary Functions I. Parliamentary Appraisal of Executive Appointments in Government Formation: Oversight or Elective Function? II. Ex Ante Parliamentary Oversight: Setting the Political Direction III. The Ex Post Dimension of Parliamentary Oversight: Post-Legislative Scrutiny and the Evaluation of Public Policies IV. Oversight Th rough Parliamentary Information: Publicity and Communication 4. Classifying Oversight Tools According to Parliamentary Practice I. Pairing Oversight Tools and Procedures According to Parliamentary Practice II. Oversight: A Realm for the Plenary or for Parliamentary Committees? III. Informative Tools Instrumental to Oversight IV. Oversight Tools Preceding Government Action V. Questioning the Government: A Hybrid Oversight Tool VI. Oversight Tools Following Government Action 5. Parliamentary Oversight in Bicameral Systems: What Role for Upper HousesI. Oversight in Symmetric Bicameralism: The Informal Search for Influence by the Italian Senate II. When Asymmetric Bicameralism Does Not Hinder the Influence Capacity of the Upper House: Oversight by the House of Lords III. Oversight as a Means of (Administrative) Territorial Influence in the German Bundesrat IV. Explaining National Variations in Upper Houses’ Parliamentary Oversight PART IIINSTANCES OF PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT IN SECTORIAL POLICY FIELDS6. Parliaments in International Affairs: Fostering Democracy Through the Oversight of Government Action I. Introduction. The Role of Parliaments in International Affairs: Overcoming the Idea of ‘Executive Dominance’ II. How Parliaments Oversee Government Foreign Policy at the Domestic Level: A Comparative Overview III. Political Versus Judicial Interpretation of the Executive–Legislative Balance of Powers in International Affairs IV. The Non-Binding Potential of Parliamentary Oversight in International Affairs 7. Parliamentary Oversight in the EU Constitutional Dimension: The Polycentric Paradigm I. Parliamentary Oversight of the EU ‘Fragmented’ Executive II. The Oversight Module Centred on the European Parliament III. Indirect Oversight by National Parliaments and National Forms of Government IV. Filling the Gaps of Parliamentary Oversight Through Interparliamentary Cooperation V. The Hybridisation of Parliamentary Oversight in the EU 8. Parliamentary Oversight of Budget: A Trade-Off with Budgetary Decision-Making? I. How Parliaments Relate to BudgetingII. Parliamentary Oversight of Budget: Alternative Models III. The Impact of European Economic Governance IV. The Trade-Off between Budgetary Decision-Making and Oversight: Unchallenged by the European Parliament 9. Conclusions: From Law-Making to Oversight? A Concrete Perspective for European Parliamentarism