Politicians, the public, think tanks, journalists and academics alike have increasingly focused in recent times on how parliaments and legislatures work and how to make them work better in terms of policy-making, representation, scrutiny and accountability. Yet, despite this focus, the evidence base for making judgments about the effectiveness of parliaments and legislatures is arguably not as extensive as it could be, perhaps partly because of methodological difficulties in assessing the influence, impact and power of these institutions.
This one-day conference of the PSA Parliaments & Legislatures Specialist Group, co-hosted by the University of Birmingham, seeks to concentrate on the evidence – whether qualitative and/or quantitative and from a range of theoretical and analytical traditions – of parliamentary and legislative effectiveness and the effectiveness of parliamentary and legislative reform.
The conference, to be held at the Institute for Government in central London on 28th October 2016, will be followed by the PSA Parliaments & Legislatures Annual Lecture.
To register an interest in presenting a paper, please contact Stephen Bates (s[dot]r[dot]bates[at]bham[dot]ac[dot]uk) with initial ideas before August 31st 2016. We welcome contributions beyond the UK Parliament, namely on the devolved legislatures and/or with a comparative dimension. Registration will open in early September.
