HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Political Science

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Reuven Hazan

Coordinator Email: Reuven.Hazan@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: by appointment

Teaching Staff:
Prof Reuven Hazan

Course/Module description:
This course examines and compares democratic legislatures, with a particular focus on the Israeli legislature, the Knesset. The course presents students with the basic concepts, models and theories needed in order to understand the organization and functioning of democratic legislatures, and provides them with the methodological tools required to conduct legislative research.

Course/Module aims:
To familiarize the students with the basic terms, concepts, theories and arguments used for political analysis of democratic legislatures. To provide the students with the practical tools needed for a comparative cross-national analysis of the differences which affect the functioning and behavior of democratic legislatures. To expose the students to a variety of contemporary legislatures. To allow a close acquaintance with the structure, function and behavior of the Israeli legislature.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1.To identify the concepts and central theories in the field of democratic legislative studies
2.To compare democratic legislatures around the world based on characteristics found in the academic literature
3.To examine to different factors which affect the function and conduct of democratic legislatures
4.To retrieve primary comparative data for use in empirical research from legislative websites around the world and specifically from the Knesset website
5.To comparatively analyze and characterize the strengths and weaknesses of democratic legislatures around the world and those of the Israeli legislature

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lectures.

Course/Module Content:
1. Introduction to Legislative studies
2. Regime Types and Executive-legislature relations
3. The Legislative Process
4. Legislative recruitment, candidate selection and general elections
5. Committees
6. PPGs, parties and discipline
7. Definitions and tools of legislative oversight
8. Opposition
9. Bicameralism

Required Reading:
1. Introduction to Legislative Studies
Mahler, Gregory S. 2008. Chapter 4: “Legislatures and Legislative Structures”. In Comparative Politics: An Institutional and Cross-National Approach, by G.S. Mahler. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 73-103.
Martin, Shane, Thomas Saalfeld and Kaare W. Strøm. 2014. “Introduction”. In The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, edited by S. Martin, T. Saalfeld and K.W. Strøm. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-11.

2. Regime Types and Executive-Legislature Relations
King, Anthony. 1976. “Modes of Executive-Legislative Relations”. Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 1, #1, pp. 11-36.
אלוביץ', טל. 2020. "הצעה לעדכון ארגז הכלים הפרלמנטרי בכנסת". מסמך פתוח, עמ' 3-28.

3. The Legislative Process
Rasch, Bjørn Erik. 2000. “Parliamentary Floor Voting Procedures and Agenda Setting in Europe”. Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 25, #1, pp. 3-23.
פרידברג, חן. 2013. "הכנסת כגוף מחוקק: דיאגנוזה והמלצות." בתוך: רהט, גדעון, שלומית ברנע, חן פרידברג ועופר קניג (עורכים). תיקון שיטת הממשל בישראל. ירושלים: המכון הישראלי לדמוקרטיה, עמ' 560-577.

4. Legislative Recruitment, Candidate Selection and General Elections
Hazan, Reuven Y. 2002. “Candidate Selection”. In Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting, edited by L. LeDuc, R. G. Niemi and P. Norris. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 108-126.
Mahler, Gregory S. 1981. “Chapter 6: The Recruitment of Members of Knesset.” In The Knesset: Parliament in the Israeli Political System by G.S. Mahler. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. 138-159.

5. Committees
Strøm, Kaare. 1998. “Parliamentary Committees in European Democracies”. Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol. 4, #1, pp. 21-59.
Friedberg, Chen. 2022. “Strength and Weakness: Legislative and Oversight Powers of the Parliamentary Committee System in Israel”. In Parliamentary Committees in the Policy Process, edited by S.T. Siefeken and H. Rommetvedt. London: Routledge, pp. 177-188.

6. PPGs, Parties and Discipline
Hazan, Reuven Y. and Reut Itzkovitch-Malka. 2020. “Parliamentarians and Party Groups: The Role of Intra-Party Unity”. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies, edited by R. Rohrschneider and J. Thomassen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 305-322.
איצקוביץ'-מלכה, רעות ואסף שפירא. 2013. "המפלגות בזירה הפרלמנטרית: לכידות סיעתית." בתוך: רהט, גדעון, שלומית ברנע, חן פרידברג ועופר קניג (עורכים). תיקון שיטת הממשל בישראל. ירושלים: המכון הישראלי לדמוקרטיה, עמ' 251-273.

7. Definitions and Tools of Legislative Oversight
פרידברג, חן וראובן חזן. 2009. "פרק ראשון: תפקיד הפיקוח של הרשות המחוקקת על הרשות המבצעת: רקע, מסגרת, היקף וכלים". בתוך פיקוח הכנסת על הממשלה: תמונת מצב והצעה לרפורמה, מאת ח. פרידברג ור. חזן. ירושלים: המכון הישראלי לדמוקרטיה, עמ' 21-56.
פרידברג, חן. 2013. "הכנסת כגוף מפקח: דיאגנוזה והמלצות." בתוך: רהט, גדעון, שלומית ברנע, חן פרידברג ועופר קניג (עורכים). תיקון שיטת הממשל בישראל. ירושלים: המכון הישראלי לדמוקרטיה, עמ' 578-605.

8. Opposition
Dahl, Robert A. 1966. “Chapter 11: Patterns of Opposition”. In Political Oppositions in Western Democracies, edited by R. A. Dahl. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 332-347.
Tuttnauer, Or. 2018. “Government-Opposition Relations in a Fragmented, Personalized, and Multidimensional Setting: The Case of Israel”. Party Politics, Vol. 26, #2, pp. 203-214.

9. Bicameralism
Coakley, John. 2014. “The Strange Revival of Bicameralism”. Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol. 20, #4, pp. 542-572.
נייר רקע: בית מחוקקים נוסף לישראל. 2008. נייר עבודה במסגרת המועצה הציבורית לחוקה. ירושלים: המכון הישראלי לדמוקרטיה.

Additional Reading Material:
see course website.

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 50 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 20 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 30 %

Additional information:
• This syllabus is temporary and is therefore not binding. The final binding syllabus is the one uploaded to the course website.
• Students who wish to receive 2 HU credit points (3 ECTS) for the course will have their grade calculated as follows: average grade on the course assignments – 30%, final paper – 50%, attendance and participation –20%.
• Students who wish to receive 6 credit points (9 ECTS) for the course will have their grade calculated as follows: the grade for 4 credit points (6 ECTS) will be based on a seminar research paper and the grade for the remaining 2 credit points (3 ECTS) will be divided as follows: average grade on the course assignments – 60%, attendance and participation – 40%.
• For a full list of the course’s reading materials, including both the mandatory and recommended reading, see the course website in the Moodle system.
• During the course the lecturer can, based on his academic judgment, make changes in the course, including changing the assignments described in the syllabus or adding new assignments.