Relative Power Within Syrian Legislature: The Speaker, The Bureau, and Limitations on Members’ Voices

Syria’s Constitutional Declaration may define the authority of the People’s Assembly in relation to the state, but the distribution of power within the legislature will be determined by Parliament’s newly adopted internal regulations. In shaping the relationship between individual members and Parliamentary leadership, the bylaws will either preserve members’ capacity to act independently or render initiative contingent on the discretion of internal leadership.

The Internal Regulations have thus far prompted concerns that too much of that authority is concentrated in the Speaker. While these concerns are not unwarranted, the distribution of power appears to be more complicated. The new rules appear to reduce the Speaker’s unilateral authority by transferring important powers to the Bureau, such as approval of the plenary agenda and appointment of committee leadership. At the same time, individuals and coalitions of MPs receive broad capacity to initiate legislation, but leadership have no obligation to carry out the subsequent proceedings. The likely result, therefore, may be relatively less unilateral control by the Speaker, but effectively equivalent concentration of practical authority in the Bureau rather than the wider membership.

The Assembly adopted the 231-article text on July 30th after revising provisions of the Internal Regulations across five days of debate. The draft from which this memorandum is composed preserves alternative formulations of this text debated during the final legislative session, providing a point of comparison and offering insight into points of contention within the Assembly. As the adopted Internal Regulations have not yet been made publicly accessible, the draft is treated as evidence of the proposed design and follows later reporting whenever divergences from the draft are expressly identified.