The Legislatures of China, Iran, and Russia

China's National People's Congress has about 3,000 delegates and meets in full session for only around two weeks a year, yet it is formally the country's most powerful state institution. That works because the NPC elects a much smaller Standing Committee, roughly 170 members, that stays in session year-round and exercises legislative authority on the full Congress's behalf between the brief annual meetings. The Standing Committee interprets laws, reviews treaties, and can even interpret the constitution, so the formal power never actually goes quiet.

Iran's Majles has 290 seats. Five of those seats are reserved for recognized religious minorities, including Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians, filled through a separate electoral process rather than the general vote. The other 285 seats are filled through ordinary elections, though the Guardian Council vets every candidate before the vote happens, which narrows the field well before voters ever choose.

Russia's Federal Assembly splits work between two chambers. The State Duma, with 450 seats filled by election, writes and debates ordinary legislation, while the upper chamber, the Federation Council, is filled with appointed or regionally selected representatives and mainly reviews and can delay what the Duma passes, plus confirms certain high-level appointments. Across all three countries, legislatures rarely vote no, but that is not the same as being pointless: they still ratify decisions, give laws a stamp of procedural legitimacy, and let competing factions or interests work out details that unilateral executive action would miss, which links directly to how these same countries structure their executives and courts to keep real power concentrated.