Løgtingið og tingnevndirnar: stovnslig eyðkenni og politiskt virksemi: The Løgting and parliamentary committees: Institutional conditions and political activity

Abstract

A typical distinction for parliaments in parliamentary systems is between a “working” or “debating” parliament. In a “working parliament” the parlia-mentary committees play a vital role. Nevertheless, there still might be differences in the ways committees work. Committees can function as tools for parliament to strengthen the position towards government, function as arenas for partisan competition, or as options for individual MPs to make agreements on allocations of distributional benefits. The expectation is that especially the institutional and partisan explanations apply. Based on information about institutional settings and a selection of activity data, the article investigates the committee system in the Løgting, including when institutional, partisan, and/or distributional characteristics apply. The investigation shows that the committee system in the Løgting adheres to characteristics for a “working parliament” and that a substantial part of the meetings take place in committees but unevenly divided between the committees. Although, the committees have institutional and partisan characteristics, the conditions for partisan behaviour seem stronger. Yet, the oversight committees have stronger institutional charac-teristics but conditioned by limited administrative support in general. For some committees, additional influence from the distributional model is worth considering.

Úrtak

Ting í skipan við tingræði kunnu virka sum mest “arbeiðandi” ella mest “kjakandi” ting. Í einum “arbeiðandi tingi” hava tingnevndirnar ein týðandi leiklut, men kunnu virka á ymiskan hátt. Tær kunnu virka sum amboð hjá tinginum at styrkja sær støðuna mótvegis stjórnarvaldinum, virka sum pallar fyri flokspolitiska kapping og/ella sum amboð hjá einstøkum tingfólkum til at gera avtalur um býtisfyrimunir. Væntanin er, at serliga stovnsfrágreiðingin og flokspolitiska frágreiðingin hava týdning. Við støði í stovnsligum eyðkennum og einum úrvali av politiskum virksemi verður tingnevndarskipanin í Løgtinginum kannað, íroknað í hvørjum føri stovnslig, flokspolitisk ella einstaklingabýtis-politisk eyðkenni eru galdandi fyri tingnevndirnar. Kanningin vísur, at tingnevndarskipanin er skipað sambært vanligum eyðkennum fyri “arbeiðandi ting”, og at ein týðandi partur av virkseminum fer fram í tingnevndunum. Tingnevndirnar eru tó ikki javnt virknar, men hava sum heild stovnsligar og flokspolitiskar fortreytir at virka eftir, tó eru fortreytirnar fyri flokspolitikk sterkari. Serliga eftirlitsvirksemið hevur stovnslig eyðkenni, men umsitingarliga orkan er sum heild sera avmarkað. Fyri einstakar tingnevndir eru eisini ábendingar um einstaklinga býtispolitisk eyðkenni.