The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey

It is often complained that the social sciences are really no more than pseudo‐sciences. One defence mechanism much used by social scientists is to employ statistics and measurements wherever possible. This handbook proposes to “assess the strength of the national legislature of every country in the world with a population of at least a half million inhabitants” (though it omits Montenegro, population 600,000). The strength is evaluated by means of a Legislative Powers Survey, comprising 32 questions designed to calculate:

Detailed explanations are provided about the significance of the questions chosen. Having compiled the questionnaire, the authors, being well aware...