A Framework for Evaluating the Performance of Committees in Westminster Parliaments

Abstract

There has been a recent trend in the literature on committees in Westminster parliaments to evaluate their performance through their impact on different groups such as the government, media and the parliament. This paper uses this literature to develop a formal framework for evaluating committees. It argues that, due to their political role, the performance of committees should be evaluated in terms of political impact or influence, rather than the audit or programme-based concept of effectiveness. A committee can demonstrate that one of its activities or reports has performed positively if at least one of its relevant groups demonstrates approval of it. The relevant groups for parliamentary committees are the government, the bureaucracy, the legislature, external stakeholders, the public, and the judiciary.

Keywords:

• parliament
• Westminster
• committees
• effectiveness
• influence
• performance

Acknowledgements

A number of people contributed to this paper in various ways. They include Stephen Boyd, Russell Chafer, David Clune, Keith Dowding, Richard Grant, Sonia Palmieri, Ian Thackeray, John Uhr and Glenn Worthington. The author acknowledges the support of the Department of the House of Representatives and the Parliamentary Studies Centre at the Australian National University.

This article is based on Parliamentary Studies Paper 10 prepared for the Parliamentary Studies Centre at the Australian National University. See also Parliamentary Studies Paper 11 by David Monk, which applies one of the approaches recommended here. Both are available at http://www.parliamentarystudies.anu.edu.au/publications.php