Legco

Legislative council

Legislative council

Type of legislative body

A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the British (former) colonies. However, it has also been used as designation in other (non-Commonwealth) nations. A member of a legislative council is commonly referred to as an MLC.

In the United States, a legislative council has a different connotation, and means a council within a legislature which supervises nonpartisan support staff.

History

In the British Empire, the authority under which legislative councils have been constituted has varied: some under the royal prerogative, others by acts of parliament, and some by commission and royal instructions.[1] Particularly, unicameral or the upper house in a bicameral legislature (where traditionally many members were appointed by Governors, rather than elected) were given the designation "legislative council".

List of legislative councils

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In India, the Vidhan Parishad is another name for the Legislative Council in those states with bicameral legislatures.

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United States

In American English, the term "legislative council" has acquired a slightly different meaning since the 1930s. It refers to a joint committee with members from both houses of the state legislature, which supervises a staff of attorneys, accountants, and researchers charged with providing strictly nonpartisan support services to the legislature or to particular committees.[7] The concept of the legislative council was first developed in Kansas and was implemented by the Kansas Legislature in 1933.[7][8] Eventually, a majority of U.S. states adopted legislative councils, but under a variety of names.[7] Between 1933 and 1959, at least 32 states had legislative councils.[8]

Kansas still uses a legislative council, although it was converted into the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council in 1971. Legislative councils operating under that name exist in the states of Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Several states use the term "commission" for the same thing, including New Jersey and Nevada.

A few states, like California, have a "legislative counsel", not "council", who is appointed by a vote of the entire legislature and is thus responsible to the body as a whole rather than a "council" within it.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Wright, Martin. Appendix 9 in The Development of the Legislative Council 1606–1945, in the series "Studies in Colonial Legislatures" edited by Margery Perham of the Institute of Colonial Studies, Oxford, England (Faber & Faber, 1946).
  2. [2]
    Office, Great Britain Colonial (1954). Colonial Reports Report on Aden.
  3. [3]
    The Colonial Office List, Comprising Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the Colonial Empire, List of Officers Serving in the Colonies, Etc. H.M. Stationery Office. 1947.
  4. [4]
    "Image 30 of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland; a guide to official publications, 1868-1968". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
  5. [5]
    "General Information". Bermuda Parliament. Government of Bermuda. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  6. [6]
    "Saint Lucia - Access Government". Saint Lucia - Access Government.
  7. [7]
    Teaford, Jon C. (2002). The Rise of the States: Evolution of American State Government. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 153–157. ISBN 9780801868894. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  8. [8]
    Davey, Harold W. (1953). "The Legislative Council Movement, 1933–1953". American Political Science Review. 47 (3): 785–797. doi:10.2307/1952905. ISSN 1537-5943. JSTOR 1952905.
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