David C. Docherty, Legislatures (The Canadian Democratic Audit Series).

• Author: Leone, Rob
• Position: Legislatures - Book Review

David C. Docherty, Legislatures (The Canadian Democratic Audit Series), Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005.

Legislatures offers an audit of the democratic nature of Canada's legislative bodies. As part of the Canadian Democratic Audit Series, the book moves beyond the study of federal parliament and provides, where available, information on the current state of provincial legislatures. Although Docherty does attempt to show changes over time where data is available, the book is not meant to be a history lesson on how legislatures have developed. This is because the purpose of the audit is to provide a snap shot of the current democratic state rather than focusing on the past.

This book has a number of positive aspects. The first of these is that the audit provides current and revised information on how Canada's legislatures work. The book presents an update on the institutional rules, both formal and informal, that are presently utilised in legislatures. These rules affect the behaviour of prime ministers, cabinets and backbenchers, as well as the process for debating and enacting legislation. Furthermore, the broad themes addressed in analysing the function of Canadian legislatures are representation, scrutiny and producing legislation. Things like party discipline, the selection of legislative roles, and committee performance have been analysed according to these themes, and this was a valuable update from previous volumes of work in this field.

The second advantage of this audit relates to its focus in analysing not only the function of legislatures, but also the impact that governing institutions have on citizens. This is in specific relation to the audit's criteria of examining democracy in terms of participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness. The implication of this on the study of governing institutions is that we should not solely analyse the work conducted inside the walls of legislative buildings, but we should also acknowledge the work that is done away from these institutions as well. We often think of our legislatures as distant, and we sometimes fail to realise that politicians have duties to perform in electoral districts across the country when they do not sit in the legislature. This may not be a novel concept, but it is sometimes overlooked in legislative studies. However, it is appropriately considered in Docherty's work.

Another particularly positive aspect of this book rests in the accessible manner in which it is written...