Employing the parliamentary committee of inquiry as an oversight tool: Israel as a case study

A parliamentary committee of inquiry (PCI) is one of the tools with which a parliament carries out its oversight function. It enables the parliament to conduct in-depth investigations of particular issues, uncover failures and corruption, and increase accountability and transparency of the government. Surprisingly, despite its value, the PCI has received little scholarly attention. This research focuses on PCIs in Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) from an institutional perspective. Our analysis–which draws on studies on parliamentary committees in general and on cross-national and other single-country studies on PCIs–highlights the institutional weaknesses of PCIs in Israel; yet at the same time, it shows how even weak PCIs can leave a mark if their limited powers are used skilfully. Based on our findings, we propose an institutional framework to evaluate the PCI as a parliamentary oversight tool that can be developed in future studies and other countries.