The Legislature

The legislature of the modern liberal democratic state is marked by two main contradictions: one is that the constitution defines the powers of the legislature, yet these powers allow the legislature to change the constitution; and the other is that the equal distribution of voting rights is incongruous with the unequal distribution of wealth. The legislature, moreover, is the institutionalized representation of the people’s voice and vote, but paradoxically it is a representation that ends upon the election. Furthermore, this institution often possesses a second ‘upper’ chamber that is empowered to act as overseer of the ‘lower’ chamber. And to these points, it can be added, all legislatures since World War II have faced a growing usurpation of political powers by the executive branch and by multi- or bilateral treaties and agencies, making these national institutions increasingly impotent, more mouthpieces of global neoliberalism than delegates of national interests.