This article studies legislative organization, and examines the normative goals of democratic legislatures. The next section draws on the current research that reflects on how legislative organization reaches these ideals. It then examines the ways in which it frequently falls short. It suggests that the strength of political parties in organizing legislative agenda is critical to whether and what type of decisiveness problems are confronted. It also discusses checks, which is the last category of expectations regarding legislatures. This article serves as an outline to be used to organize some ideas about comparative legislative organization.