The strength and viability of any country’s democracy depend, to a very large extent, on the strength and quality of the legislative branch of its government. This is because it falls solely to the legislature to make the laws upon which a country is governed, to shape government policies, and to oversee the executive branch. Those lawmaking, scrutiny and oversight powers put the legislature at the core of democratic governance. Hence, as one scholar puts it, the legislature is a “driving force in government” and the “heart and soul of a democracy”.