This Duma Should Start Passing Laws

With a Herculean last-minute effort, the multimillion dollar refurbishment of the old Gosplan building has been completed -- bar a few minor details -- in time for Wednesday's opening of the fall session of the State Duma. No expense has been spared to provide the deputies with a state-of-the-art debating chamber, as well as their own offices with dedicated phone lines and computers, plus various conference rooms, buffets and restaurants.


And quite right too. Legislation is a serious business and the elected representatives of the people should have every possible means at their disposal to allow them to do their job efficiently. For them to be able to make calls without standing in line, to sit in comfort through long sessions, to have the means to write reports and letters and somewhere to eat is only reasonable.


But now that the parliamentarians have been adequately equipped with the trappings of office, it is up to them to show their electorate that they are worth it. So far we have seen plenty of histrionics from this parliament, and a gargantuan quantity of verbiage, but it has produced precious few laws.


Instead, we have had a stack of presidential decrees covering crucial economic reforms, law and order and other matters that should have been taken up and resolved by parliament. This rash of Kremlin decrees has met with a loud outcry from deputies, who feel that the president has usurped their powers and undermined the democratic process.


And they should, of course, be absolutely right. Rule by decree is, ipso facto, undesirable. To produce laws like rabbits out of a hat rather than refining them through debate and committee, is unsatisfactory and has little to do with democracy. But for the most part, Yeltsin's decrees filled a vacuum. It was not as though the Duma was providing an alternative set of laws that were being blocked by the president. Had it not been for Yeltsin's decrees there would have been virtually no legislation this year and the government would have been paralyzed, the country left altogether directionless.


By the end of the last parliament session, there were some signs that a growing number of Duma deputies were getting a taste for lawmaking.


But these are still overshadowed, if not actually outnumbered, by the vociferous activists who regard the Duma as nothing more than a platform for power politics. The talk recently has been about a stormy session ahead, about votes of no confidence and plans to change election dates. These debates have their place. But we have seen plenty of it before and it has done nothing to create a strong parliament for Russia. This session of the State Duma should be for lawmaking.