A quick report on the PSA Parliaments group’s activities at the Political Studies Association International Annual Conference 2019.
In April 2019 the PSA Parliaments group travelled to Nottingham for the Political Studies Association International Annual Conference 2019: #PSA19. We held six panels with twenty-three papers, covering topics including parliaments and legislation, select committees, petitions, accountability, and ethics. We also held a special panel on researching parliaments, featuring papers from House of Commons Academic Fellows and the Institute for Government.
Thank you to everyone who chaired panels, presented papers or came along to our sessions; we hope to see you in Cardiff for our 2019 PSA Parliaments Annual Conference in November – details to be announced shortly.
For more details about the papers and panels, take a look at our Twitter feed from the week. Many of the papers are also available online – follow the links to each panel from the list below, or contact the author directly.
Opening Up Parliament: From public claims to expert knowledge
- Making Sense of How MPs Engage with Parliamentary e-Petitions (Felicity Matthews, University of Sheffield)
- How Parliaments have dealt with the upsurge of e-petitions (Cristina Leston-Bandeira, University of Leeds)
- Between diversity, representation and ‘best evidence’: Rethinking select committee evidence-gathering practices (Danielle Beswick, University of Birmingham; Stephen Elstub, University of Newcastle)
- Evidence Practices in the House of Commons (Marc Geddes, University of Edinburgh)
Researching Parliament (with House of Commons Academic Fellows)
- Brexit, Scotland & Devolution: The Future Role of the UK Parliament (Margaret Arnott, UWS)
- Up Close Observation in The Everyday Life of Parliament (Mark Bennister, Lincoln)
- Parliament and Public Engagement (Catherine Bochel, Lincoln)
- Parliamentary Monitor: increasing the value of parliamentary data (Hannah White, Institute for Government)
Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy
- Reintroducing Ethics in politics (Gordana Comic, Deputy Speaker, National Assembly of Republic of Serbia)
- Parliament struggling to fulfil the promise of democracy (Meg Munn, Global Partners Governance)
- Trust in Politics: Is too much accountability a bad thing for political trust? (Greg Power, Global Partners Governance)
- Keeping Information Honest: A unique role for parliaments? (Zoe Oliver-Watts, Global Partners Governance)
UK Parliament: Legislation and Brexit
- The post-legislative gap (Tom Caygill, Newcastle University)
- Coordination or chaos? Analysis of the 2017 wash-up period in the UK parliament (Ruth Dixon, Oxford University)
- Select committees and Brexit: Challenges and Opportunities (Richard Whitaker and Philip Lynch, University of Leicester)
- Partisan Dealignment and Personal Vote-Seeking: Evidence from the UK House of Commons (Thomas Fleming, Oxford)
UK Parliament: How does history inform the future?
- Understanding parliamentary governance: using the Multiple Streams Framework and Historical Institutionalism to analyse the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster (Alexandra Meakin, University of Sheffield)
- The Burns Report on the Size of the House of Lords: Using Parliamentary Privilege to Informally Amend an Act of Parliament? (Craig Prescott, University of Winchester)
- The House of Commons’ influence over military action: What can we learn from history? (James Strong, QMUL)
- From Representation to Meritocracy: conceptions of parliamentary work and the political class in the Boyle Committee reports, 1971-1979 (Nick Dickinson, University of Exeter)
Parliaments and Policy Making in Comparative Perspective
- Critical Leaders: How Women on Parliamentary Committees Influence the Health Sector in Africa (Susan Dodsworth and Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham)
- Understanding parliamentary oversight in Africa: An interpretive analysis of confirmation hearings in Ghana’s Parliament (Ernest Kwofie, University of Birmingham)
- (Un)sustainable Legislative Language in a Changing World (Matthew Williams, University of Oxford