Rules Of Order Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Rules of order are standardized procedural rules adopted by any deliberative body or assembly. Constitutions, bylaws, and rules of order are the general documents used to govern and define deliberative bodies. The purpose of rules of order is the regulation of the day-to-day conduct of debate. Bylaws and constitutions generally deal with who can be a member of a body, how the members are chosen, and the subjects that the deliberative body can address. Rules of order address who can make a motion before the body, how the motion should be made and handled, and how many votes are needed for specific motions to pass.

Rules of order, bylaws, and constitutions are distinguished also by the ease with which they can be changed. Constitutions typically take months or years to change. Bylaws usually take at least two regular meetings to change. Both almost always require notifying the entire membership of the deliberative body about the proposed change well before meeting to decide the change and formally publishing the changes. However, rules of order can be changed either permanently or temporarily during a meeting; the change simply requires the approval of the people present. Just as there are different types of constitutions and bylaws, there are different types of rules of order as well.

The purpose of rules of order is to enable the deliberative body to handle business as efficiently as possible. This holds true no matter the rules of order employed. All deliberative bodies—from the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives to corporate boards of directors and executive committees to elementary school parent-teacher organizations and Boy Scout troops—have a limited amount of time to handle necessary business. When people argue about whether a decision of the chair is appropriate, decision making is prolonged.

In the United States, the most common form is Robert’s Rules of Order. This form gets its name from Henry Robert, who authored the first version in 1876. A number of companies publish his rules, which remain basically the same. The standardization makes it easy for a group to adopt Robert’s Rules of Order when it does not have the resources or need to develop its own.

At the U.S. state legislature level, individualized rules of order are the norm. Unlike most organizations using rules of order, government legislatures operate continuously to handle what are regular situations for them but are uncommon for other bodies. State legislatures tend to rely on Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure (1935) as their guide. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have their own rules of order that date back to Thomas Jefferson.

French-speaking areas of the world rely on the Code Morin (1938). In Canada, Bourinot’s Rules of Order (1884) and Robert’s Rules of Order are both used. Most countries of the English parliamentary tradition use rules of order based on those of Westminster and the British Parliament. The person responsible for ensuring proper use of the rules is the parliamentarian. The National Association of Parliamentarians or the American Institute of Parliamentarians concern themselves with parliamentary procedure.

Bibliography:

Jefferson,Thomas. A Manual of Parliamentary Practice Composed for the Use of the Senate of the United States. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2005.
Jennings, C. Alan. Robert’s Rules for Dummies. Indianapolis:: For Dummies, Wiley, 2004.
Mason, Paul. Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure. Eagan, Minn.: West, 1989.
Morin, Victor. Code Morin: Prodecure Des Assemblees Deliberantes. Montreal: Librairie Beauchemin, 1991.
Robert, Henry M. Robert’s Rules of Order: Classic Edition. Minneapolis: Filiquarian, 2006.
Robert McConnell Productions. Webster’s New World Robert’s Rules of Order Simplified and Applied. New York:Webster’s New World,Wiley, 2001.
Stanford, Geoffrey. Bourinot’s Rules of Order: A Manual on the Practices and Usages of the House of Commons of Canada and on the Procedure at Public Assemblies, Including Meetings of Shareholders. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995.
Sturgis, Alice. The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

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