Principles of parliamentary procedure

Last updated

Parliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies. General principles of parliamentary procedure include rule of the majority with respect for the minority.

Contents

Purpose

The purpose of parliamentary procedure is for the assembly to conduct its businesses in the most efficient way possible while protecting the rights of its members. [1]

Principles

Majority rule

The basic principle of decision is majority vote. [2]

Minority rights

The minority have certain rights that only a supermajority, such as a two-thirds vote, can overrule. [2] Such rights include introducing new business and speaking in debate. [3]

Member rights

Members have the right to attend meetings, speak in debate, make (and second) motions, and vote; when the vote is by ballot, there is an additional right of secrecy in how the member votes. Other rights include nominating (and being nominated) to office, running for or being elected to office, and receiving proper notice of all meetings. [4] A member cannot be individually deprived of any these rights except through disciplinary procedures. [4]

Members have the right to know what they are deciding on. [5] The assembly acts with fairness and good faith. [1] [6] All members are treated equally. [7] [8] Members are expected to be of honorable character. [9]

One question at a time

Only one main motion can be pending at a time. [10] According to Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), this rule is considered to be a "fundamental principle of parliamentary law". [11]

One person, one vote

Each member has a vote and each vote is weighted equally. [7] [12] According to RONR, this rule is considered to be a "fundamental principle of parliamentary law". [11] Exceptions to this rule, such as cumulative voting, must be expressly provided for in the organization's fundamental rules. [13]

Only members present can vote

The decisions made by members present at a meeting are the official acts in the name of the organization. [2] [6] According to RONR, this rule is considered to be a "fundamental principle of parliamentary law". [11] Exceptions for absentee voting would have to be expressly provided for in the organization's rules. [14] Nonmembers are not allowed to vote. [11] It is important to note that any member can abstain from voting, at any time—unless the committee or organization strictly prohibits it, especially in groups of nine or less individuals.

Changing action previously decided on

Under RONR, the requirements for changing a previous action are greater than those for taking the action in the first place. [15] A motion to rescind, repeal or annul or amend something already (previously) adopted, for instance, requires a two-thirds vote, a majority with previous notice, or a majority of the entire membership. [16]

However, under The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, a repeal or amendment of something already adopted requires only the same vote (usually a majority) and notice that was needed to adopt it in the first place. [17]

Following own specific rules

The group must have the authority to take the actions it purports to take. [6] [18] To be valid, any action or decision of a body must not violate any applicable law or constitutional provision. [6] [19] Also, actions cannot be in conflict with a decision previously made unless that action is rescinded or amended. [19] The body can change the rules it wants to follow as long as it follows the rules for making such changes. [20]

Absentee members rights

Certain actions require previous notice, which protects the rights of absentees. [2] This includes notice of the meetings. [6] [21] There also needs to be a quorum, or the minimum number of members to be present at a meeting. [6] [22]

Nonmembers rights

Under RONR nonmembers have none of these rights and the assembly can exclude any or all of them from the proceedings. [23]

Related Research Articles

<i>Roberts Rules of Order</i> Book on parliamentary procedure by Henry Martyn Robert

Robert's Rules of Order, often simply referred to as Robert's Rules, is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for which it was designed [...] Where there is no law [...] there is the least of real liberty." The term Robert's Rules of Order is also used more generically to refer to any of the more recent editions, by various editors and authors, based on any of Robert's original editions, and the term is used more generically in the United States to refer to parliamentary procedure. It was written primarily to help guide voluntary associations in their operations of governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliamentary procedure</span> Guidelines to conduct meetings

Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or the will of the majority of the assembly upon these questions. Self-governing organizations follow parliamentary procedure to debate and reach group decisions, usually by vote, with the least possible friction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Committee</span> Body of one or more persons that is subordinate to a deliberative assembly

A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more fully than would be possible if the assembly itself were considering them. Committees may have different functions and their types of work differ depending on the type of the organization and its needs.

A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, or a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition. It is usually non-binding, unlike a motion of no confidence.

An agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up, beginning with the call to order and ending with adjournment. It usually includes one or more specific items of business to be acted upon. It may, but is not required to, include specific times for one or more activities. An agenda may also be called a docket, schedule, or calendar. It may also contain a listing of an order of business.

A repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law with an updated, amended, or otherwise related law, or a repeal without replacement so as to abolish its provisions altogether.

A special rule of order is parliamentary procedure term for a rule adopted by the organization that relate to procedure or to the duties of officers within meetings.

A parliamentary authority is a book of rules for conducting business in deliberative assemblies. Several different books have been used by legislative assemblies and by organizations' deliberative bodies.

Deliberative assemblies – bodies that use parliamentary procedure to arrive at decisions – use several methods of voting on motions. The regular methods of voting in such bodies are a voice vote, a rising vote, and a show of hands. Additional forms of voting include a recorded vote and balloting.

In parliamentary procedure, reconsideration of a motion may be done on a matter previously decided. The motion to "reconsider" is used for this purpose. This motion originated in the United States and is generally not used in parliaments. A special form of this motion is reconsider and enter on the minutes.

In parliamentary procedure, a motion to appeal from the decision of the chair is used to challenge a ruling of the chair.

In certain countries, a motion in parliamentary procedure is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. Such motions, and the form they take are specified by the deliberate assembly and/or a pre-agreed volume detailing parliamentary procedure, such as Robert's Rules of Order; The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure; or Lord Citrine's The ABC of Chairmanship. Motions are used in conducting business in almost all legislative bodies worldwide, and are used in meetings of many church vestries, corporate boards, and fraternal organizations.

In United States parliamentary procedure, a suspension of the rules allows a deliberative assembly to set aside its normal rules to do something that it could not do otherwise. However, there are rules that cannot be suspended.

In parliamentary procedure in the United States, a motion to postpone to a certain time is used to delay action on a pending question until a different day, meeting, hour or until after a certain event. Then, when that time comes, the consideration of the question is picked up where it was left off when it was postponed.

Debate in parliamentary procedure refers to discussion on the merits of a pending question; that is, whether it should or should not be agreed to. It is also commonly referred to as "discussion".

In a deliberative assembly, disciplinary procedures are used to punish members for violating the rules of the assembly.

In parliamentary procedure, requests and inquiries are motions used by members of a deliberative assembly to obtain information or to do or have something done that requires permission of the assembly. Except for a request to be excused from a duty, these requests and inquiries are not debatable nor amendable.

The history of parliamentary procedure refers to the origins and evolution of parliamentary law used by deliberative assemblies.

In parliamentary procedure, the verb to table has the opposite meaning in the United States from that of the rest of the world:

References

  1. 1 2 Sturgis, Alice (2001). The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 4th ed., p. 7
  2. 1 2 3 4 Robert, Henry M.; et al. (2011). Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-306-82020-5.
  3. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 403
  4. 1 2 Robert 2011 , p. 3
  5. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 299
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 National Conference of State Legislatures (2000). Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, p. 2–4
  7. 1 2 Robert 2011 , p. 2
  8. ↑ Demeter, George (1969). Demeter's Manual of Parliamentary Law and Procedure, Blue Book, p. 4–6
  9. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 643
  10. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 59
  11. 1 2 3 4 Robert 2011 , p. 263
  12. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 407
  13. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 443
  14. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 423
  15. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 75
  16. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 306
  17. ↑ Sturgis, Alice (2001). The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 4th ed.
  18. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 125
  19. 1 2 Robert 2011 , p. 251
  20. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 10
  21. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 89
  22. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 21
  23. ↑ Robert 2011 , p. 648
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.