Research on parliaments/legislatures in development?

April 14, 2014 1:38 PM

Could anyone point me to either (1) any recent books or studies that extensively discuss the role of parliaments and other legislative bodies in state building and reconstruction in developing countries, particularly post-conflict ones like Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan; or (2) any evaluations or assessments of development programs to strengthen legislatures that do not rely exclusively on qualitative methods or anecdotes but incorporate experimental, quasi-experimental, RCT or other quantitative evaluation methods?

I've dug up some basic resources and materials on Google and Google Scholar: New institutional economics points in this direction, but I haven't seen anything that really focuses on where legislative institutions fit in that theory. And I've reviewed material like this this and this the resources like those here and here, but have pretty much run dry after that...

posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy to Law & Government (1 answer total)

I'm not so familiar with their methods, but the Inter-Parliamentary Union supports parliaments especially in developing countries. Their work in Myanmar is what I am most familiar with but I think they also work in Iraq etc. At the least, they would know who to point you to in terms of methods. OGP may also be of interest but again, not so much on quantitative.

From what I know in my own impact work (in another field) RCT isn't that widely implemented in capacity building for institutions/adults, there is some happening for childhood education.
posted by wingless_angel at 1:51 PM on April 14, 2014