Make-Up Post: Decline of Assemblies

Along with many other problems that we debate on a daily basis, decline of assemblies is another important feature responsible for the current dismal state of Pakistan. A few principle factors that are found to be influential in this case are the political parties, interest groups, government growth and sometimes organizational structure.
With the emerging disciplined political groups, assemblies are becoming more of a party-oriented system. Party loyalty requires assembly members to support their party doctrine rather than individual opinion. This discourages the concept of “debate” that is originally meant to be the purpose of assemblies. Apart from that, the majority party of the assembly is also the government of the day which means the policies are after all being made by that government while ignoring other factions. This in return facilitates executive domination in policy making.
The growing economy, increased technology and competition in the world require some expertise to handle national affairs. This expertise can only be acquired through the highly trained and able executives, but this involvement of executives does not leave much room for the assembly to operate autonomously. Their policies are of course influenced or sometimes dominated by executive decisions.
As much as party unity is responsible for assembly decline, interest groups also have a major role to play in it. Now when the assemblies are not paying attention to the welfare of individuals, they have nowhere but to turn to these interest groups who prove to be more effective in making public statements and expressing their views. They have expert opinions, latest information and creative arguments to support their stance, meanwhile assemblies are occupied by party-unity systems.
Some experts also associate the decline of assemblies to organizational weakness and a lack of leadership. But this debate can go too far in the search of whether equality in voting is better or an effective leadership which can take concerted action.
With these few factors, along with many others, one cannot really question the functioning and authority of assemblies. I believe that these factors emerge from the growth of government and are somehow impossible to avoid altogether.