Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

10-2021

Abstract

Decree powers are common to presidential systems; they are rarely found in parliamentary ones. We analyze decree powers in one such rare setting: India. We show that bicameral minority governments in India systematically use ordinances to circumvent parliament and prosecute their legislative agendas. They promulgate more ordinances, enact less legislation, and often repromulgate lapsed ordinances. These patterns suggest that, with bicameral minority governments, the locus of lawmaking shifts to the executive branch. While both majority and minority governments invoke ordinances, the latter do so systematically to get around their parliamentary deficit. In the hands of minority governments, then, the mechanism effectively helps to defy the will of the parliamentary majority. This suggests that the ordinance mechanism, originally introduced in the Indian constitution for limited purposes, has blossomed into a distinct source of—and forum for—parliamentary lawmaking.

Keywords

Decree power, Article 123, minority governments, ordinance, parliamentary systems, India

Discipline

Asian Studies | Political Economy | Political Science

Research Areas

Public Interest Law, Community and Social Justice; Applied Microeconomics

Publication

Journal of Politics

Volume

83

Issue

4

First Page

1432

Last Page

1449

ISSN

0022-3816

Identifier

10.1086/715060

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1086/715060

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