Law on Legislature Sizes of 1989
| Law on Legislature Sizes of 1989 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Gylian Parliament | |
| Date passed | 1 February 1989 |
| Date signed | 1 February 1989 |
| Date commenced | 15 February 1989 |
| Summary | |
| Caps the sizes of federal and local legislatures. | |
| Status: Current legislation | |
The Law on Legislature Sizes of 1989 is a Gylian federal law that caps the sizes of federal and local legislatures.
The law was introduced to remedy a perceived risk that the continued growth of legislature sizes would undermine the principle of direct democracy.
Background
Since the end of the Liberation War, Gylias has maintained a political system based on the primacy of direct democracy and subsidiarity, with legislative and executive institutions having limited capabilities that are delegated to them.
Initially, a legal principle was followed that legislature sizes would be determined by population, measured in censuses every 10 years. However, the steady growth rate experienced since 1958 posed a problem. Since Elections Gylias had to increase the number of circonscriptions to account for population growth, federal and local legislature sizes had increased. The Chamber of Deputies grew from 285 members in 1962 to 520 members in 1985.
Amid the political stagnation of the wretched decade and Ossorian war crisis of 1986, a fear grew that unchecked legislature growth would usurp the centrality of communal assemblies as the locus of governance. A law was drafted to remedy this oversight by the Filomena Pinheiro government, which passed in 1989.
Text of the law
- This law shall limit legislature sizes in Gylias.
- All legislatures shall have a fixed number of members, determined by law and popular mandate.
- Elections Gylias shall continue drawing conscription boundaries based on censuses to ensure equal representation.
- Municipalities and regions shall determine their legislature size and number of deputies elected per circonscription.
Effects
The law established fixed legislature sizes at all levels of governance, to be determined by each level through popular decisions. For example, the Chamber of Deputies fixed its size at 500 seats, a reduction of 20, to take effect from the upcoming federal election.
Although not stipulated in the law, legislatures strengthened the tradition of choosing as total size even numbers divisible by 5 or 10.
Some commentators credit the law with contributing to the Non-inscrits' breakthrough in the 1990 federal election.