Paper short abstract:

National Assembly of Bhutan, estab. in 1953, has further evolved from 2008 as part of the new democratic Parliament of the Kingdom. Roles, rules and procedures are reviewed, along with interactions with the monarch and related bodies. Potential conflict and consensus areas are identified.

Paper long abstract:

The present Parliament of the kingdom of Bhutan, established by the 2008 Constitution, rests on the principal legislative National Assembly, with a National Council as a House of equal stature, all headed by the Monarch as Head of State. This paper reviews the origin, development and procedural changes of the original National Assembly from 1953, and charts its role in the overall development from consultative body to substantive legislative institution. The paper also considers problems of adjusting an increasingly sophisticated machinery of State to the requirements of the electorate and external pressures from international community. Competition over political boundaries between the NA and NC, and to some extent also with the traditional and constitutional authority of the Monarch, is reviewed. A tentative judgment is that quite fair progress has been made in the development of the legislative institution, but that policies adopted during the term of the present government (ie to mid-2018) may have far-reaching effects on enhancing the level of public acceptance of, and further clarifying the focus of, "democracy with Bhutan characteristics".