Toward an Economics of Comparative Political Organization: Examining Ministerial Responsibility

Matthew S R Palmer

The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1995, vol. 11, issue 1, 164-88

Abstract: This article takes a step toward developing a general theoretical framework for analyzing comparative constitutional design. The Westminster system of constitutional design is characterized as analogous to a centralized hierarchical organization preserved intact but subjected to franchise bidding, whereas the U.S. constitutional system is viewed as a structure for mediating spontaneous transactions between broken-up institutions. The article uses this framework to analyze four functions of the Westminster doctrines of ministerial responsibility and compares them to their analogous elements (or lack thereof) in the U.S. constitution. Ministerial responsibility is presented as crucial to constituting the hierarchy of primary agency relationships of the Westminster constitution. The absence of analogous elements in the U.S. reflects the fundamentally different structure of agency relationships in that system of constitutional design. Copyright 1995 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jleorg:v:11:y:1995:i:1:p:164-88

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization is currently edited by Andrea Prat

More articles in The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().