Legislative planning in Central Europe

Abstract

Cabinets in Central Europe regularly publish legislative work-plans, i.e. periodical lists of bills to be adopted by the cabinet and introduced to parliament. Such legislative planning has the potential to make an important contribution towards achieving better governance. The comparative experience of legislative planning in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia shows, however, that many governments find it difficult to transform legislative programmes into effective tools for strategic management of government legislation. This article argues that a major reason for such problems lies in the deficient organization of the planning process.