NCJ Number
106492
Date Published
1986
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This report examines trends in the length of the legislative procedure in the Dutch Upper House.
Abstract
Average parliamentary disposition time of general bills introduced in the Upper House between 1975-1985 was 466 days, up from the 320 days in the period between 1961-1970. This increase is not viewed as significant, because certain matters of extraordinary duration in the 1961-1970 period were disregarded in the study. For 1975-1985, the period for the disposition of justice bills was one-and-a-half to twice as long as for other bills, namely 810 days. Changes in governing political parties of the parliamentary government have not resulted in changes in the speed of processing bills. Of general bills, 63 percent are enacted in less than a year; although in one administration (the Lubbers Government), only 3 percent of justice bills were enacted in under a year. Factors effecting the length of the legislative process include controversy, technical complexity (particularly when broad code revisions are attempted), and novelty of the issue. Controversy is twice as important a factor as technical complexity. Important revisions, representing 20 percent of bills, averaged 3.5 years to enact. Using subcommittees and obtaining agreements in principle first are recommended to increase processing efficiency on difficult bills. 10 tables and 24 references.