Lawmaking is the process of crafting

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

. In its purest sense, it is the basis of

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...

. This form of law making is also applied in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is a process which works in India on the basis of the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

. Lawmaking in modern

democracies Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose go ...

is the work of

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

s, which exist at the local, regional, and national levels and make such laws as are appropriate to their level, and binding over those under their jurisdictions. These bodies are influenced by

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

s, pressure groups, sometimes partisan considerations, but ultimately by the voters who elected them and to which they are responsible, if the system is working as intended. Even the expenditure of governmental funds is an aspect of lawmaking, as in most jurisdictions the budget is a matter of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. In

dictatorships A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

and

absolute monarchies Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constitut ...

the leader can make law essentially by the stroke of a pen, one of the main objections to such an arrangement. However, a seemingly-analogous event can occur even in a democracy where the

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

can make

executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of t ...

s which have the force of law. In some instance, even regulations issued by executive departments can have the force of law. Libertarians, in particular, are known for denouncing such actions as being anti-democratic, but they have become such a salient feature of modern governance that it is hard to picture a system in which they no longer exist, because it is hard to picture the time involved in every regulation being debated prior to becoming law. That, say libertarians, is precisely the point: if such executive orders and regulations do not stand up to legislative scrutiny, they should never be implemented. In response to this, limits on regulatory authority have been made legislatively, and libertarians still contend for, if not the abolition of executive orders altogether, then their automatic sunset after a fixed period if not legislatively reviewed and confirmed; this policy has been adopted in some jurisdictions.

References

External links

{{gov-stub Legislative legal terminology Indian legal terminology