The Functioning of Parliamentary Libraries and the Principle of the Separation of Powers

Abstract

Even though analytic philosophy does suggest a certain legitimate point of departure that a formal social / political science could be built upon, the mechanism of the ‘separation of powers’ has never yet been explored in that particular conceptual framework. Here we provide an argument that a divergent stratification which is unavoidable in a field of freely inter(acting) rational agents translates into a division of monolithic power, providing a formalist reinterpretation of this traditional ‘idealistic protections’ commitment. We further explore the consequences in terms of information provision and information tailoring that this stratification brings in its aftermath and use this formal argument to deliver the definition of a ‘parliamentary information service’ that is placed in a pragmatic context and has suggested consequences for it. A parliamentary library in its services and products is to include as consistent as possible monitoring of the public discourse in order to allow for the expression of ‘parliamentarianism’ in its analytic interpretation.