Legislative council

A legislative council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.

A member of a legislative council is commonly referred to as an MLC.

Legislative councils as constituted, 1945

The authority under which legislative councils have been constituted has varied: some under the prerogative, others by act of parliament, and some by commission and royal instructions.[1] As at 1945:

Unicameral legislatures

Part of a bicameral legislature

(Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces not to have had an upper house, although Ontario used to have one as Upper Canada and as part of the pre-confederation united Province of Canada)

Nonpartisan legislative support agency

In American English, the term "legislative council" has developed a radically different meaning since the 1930s. Today, it refers to a joint committee with members from both houses of the state legislature, which supervises a staff of attorneys, accountants, and researchers charged with providing strictly nonpartisan support services to the legislature or to particular committees.[6] The concept of the legislative council was first developed in Kansas and was implemented by the Kansas Legislature in 1933.[6] Eventually, a majority of U.S. states adopted legislative councils, but under a variety of names.[6] Kansas still uses a legislative council, although it was converted into the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council in 1971. Today, legislative councils actually operating under that name exist in the states of Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Several states prefer to use the term "commission" for the same thing, including New Jersey and Nevada.

A few states, like California, have a "legislative counsel," not "council," who is appointed by a vote of the entire legislature and is thus responsible to the body as a whole rather than a "council" within it.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wright, Martin. Appendix 9 in "The Development of the Legislative Council 1606-1945", in the series "Studies in Colonial Legislatures" edited by Margery Perham of the Institute of Colonial Studies, Oxford, England (Faber & Faber, 1946)
  2. ↑ Meditz, Sandra W. and Tim Merrill (ed.), Zaire: A Country Study, Chapter 4 - Government and Politics, "The Legislature
  3. ↑ "COMPLETE TEXT OF THE ZAIRIAN CONSTITUTION AFTER THE ENACTMENT OF LAW NO. 90-002 OF JULY 5, 1990 CONCERNING THE MODIFICATION OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION", Article 72
  4. ↑ Constitution de la République du Zaïre, articles 72–92. Source: Journal Officiel de la République du Zaïre (N. 1 du 1er janvier 1983)
  5. ↑ Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. pp. 145–147. OCLC 154283103.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Teaford, Jon C. (2002). The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 153–157. ISBN 9780801868894. Retrieved August 25, 2014.