Parliamentary Control in Times of Crisis: How Can It Be Evaluated? Reflections on the Example of the German Bundestag and the French Assemblée nationale at the Beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the functioning of parliamentary control of the German Bundestag and the French Assemblée nationale was criticised. While the criticism in France focused mainly on legal obstacles; in Germany it was especially the work of the opposition parliamentary groups that was judged to be inadequate. However, the criticism left open why certain criteria were applied and to what extent they are recommendable or sufficient for an assessment of parliamentary control activities. This paper addresses this research gap by asking which criteria could be used for a more systematic evaluation of parliamentary control in times of crisis. This paper offers an evaluation along two criteria: the level of communication between the government, the parliamentary majority and the opposition parliamentary groups at the beginning of the crisis, and the differentiation of control instruments according to the frequency of their use in non-crisis periods. Following this approach, the control performance of the German Bundestag can be evaluated as somewhat better than that of the French National Assembly.