The Working of Parliamentary Committees in Westminster Systems : Lessons for Bangladesh

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction/Nizam Ahmed and A.T.M. Obaidullah. 2. Parliamentary Committees and the Westminster model: has Australia gone too far/John Power and John Halligan. 3. Parliamentary Committee System of Bangladesh/Barrister Ziaur Rahman Khan. 4. Role of Parliamentary Committees in Bangladesh/Al Masud Hasanuzzaman. 5. Departmental select committees in the British House of Commons/Nizam Ahmed. 6. Parliamentary Committees, the democratic process and institutional support in the Canadian House of commons/Linda Buchanan. 7. Committees in the Indian parliament/Vinay K. Bhatnagar. 8. Parliamentary Committees: New Zealand experience/David Butcher. 9. Conclusion/Nizam Ahmed and A.T.M. Obaidullah. Appendices. References. Index.

"Committees are ubiquitous. They are found in all types of legislatures--large or small, old or new. Parliamentary Committees are important because they can provide a number of values that are not easily available otherwise. However, although it is widely acknowledged that committees have greater resilience on Congressional and Continental Systems than in Westminster-style democracies, there are not many studies that explore variations in committee influence and impact in the latter. This volume intends to fill this gap. It provides a detailed account of the organization and working of Parliamentary Committees in Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, Canada, India and New Zealand and identifies the reasons that explain why they matter more in some Westminster-style democracies than in the others. It also explores the lessons that Bangladesh can learn from the experiences of other countries. This comparative study should be of interest to parliamentarians, party politicians, researchers, academics and civil society representatives." (jacket)