The PSA Annual International Conference (PSA22) was held last month in York and online, providing an opportunity for our fantastic community of scholars and practitioners in parliamentary and legislative studies to finally meet up in person, three years after the last PSA in Nottingham in 2019, but also allowing others to contribute virtually through the hybrid proceedings.
The PSA Annual International Conference (PSA22) was held last month in York and online, providing an opportunity for our fantastic community of scholars and practitioners in parliamentary and legislative studies to finally meet up in person, three years after the last PSA in Nottingham in 2019, but also allowing others to contribute virtually through the hybrid proceedings.
We were delighted to host an exceptional and very well attended programme of PSA Parliament panels, featuring ground-breaking research on parliaments and legislatures from around the globe, across five panels and a roundtable on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th April.
Monday started with our panel How to be a parliamentarian? Representation and roles, in which David C.W. Parker and Jeffrey L. Lazarus (Montana State University-Bozeman, Georgia State University) explored public spending and constituency data in the UK Parliament; Caroline Bhattacharya, Stephen Holden Bates, Stephen McKay (University of Helsinki, University of Birmingham, University of Lincoln) considered how the roles of backbench MPs’ roles changed between 1979 and 2019. Luai Allarakia (University of Richmond) examined conflict within Kuwait’s National Assembly and Omomayowa Olawale Abati (Stellenbosch University) considered youth representation in Nigeria’s Lower National Legislature.
We hosted a roundtable during Monday lunchtime, chaired by Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson, as part of the planning process for a second edition of the successful Exploring Parliament textbook. The roundtable featured the most senior official in the House of Lords—the Clerk of the Parliaments, Simon Burton, and House of Commons Principal Clerk, Farrah Bhatti, in addition to leading parliamentary scholars Sarah Childs and Jack Sheldon.
Our final Monday panel How to be a parliamentarian: how do Members participate? featured Donald Keya Manyala and Benson Inzofu Mwale (Parliament of Kenya) presenting their paper: Participation of Minority Legislators in Legislative Business at the National Assembly of Kenya; Alia Middleton, Louise Thompson (University of Surrey, University of Manchester) examining the parliamentary lives of former UK Prime Ministers and Joel Martinsson (Linnaeus University / Swedish Parliament) considering when and why Swedish parliamentarians submit motions on behalf of special interest organizations.
On Tuesday our day started with Felix Wiebrecht, (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) presenting his research on legislatures in authoritarian regimes; James Strong (Queen Mary University of London) exploring whether UK War Powers Convention fundamentally changed the House of Commons’ influence over the use of force;Temitayo Odeyemi, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Alexander Beresford (University of Leeds) considering non-state actors and Nigeria’s national-subnational legislative public engagement; and Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds) discussing public engagement and the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, as part of our panel Parliamentary powers, prerogatives, and public engagement.
Our second panel of the day, How MPs use old and new media and how old and new media affects MPs, started with research from James Weinberg (University of Sheffield) on the mental health of politicians in the UK, Canada and South Africa; Tevfik Murat Yildirim, Gunnar Thesen (University of Stavanger, Norway) then discussed the public visibility of Members of Parliament in the UK and Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler (University of Stirling) explored parliamentarians’ communication strategies.
Our final panel of the day (and conference!), on Comparative and inter-parliamentary analysis included papers from Margaret Arnott (University of the West of Scotland) interparliamentary relations in the devolved UK; André Vella (University of Birmingham) on parliamentary privilege in Commonwealth legislatures; Franklin De Vrieze (Westminster Foundation for Democracy) on the oversight role of parliaments in public debt management; and finally Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler, Mark Shephard (University of Stirling, University of Strathclyde) comparing personal attacks and positive self-reference in exchanges between the Conservatives and SNP in PMQs and FMQs.
Thank you to all our paper-givers and attendees (virtual and in-person) for sharing your research and offering excellent perspectives and questions the papers provided. Thank you also the local University of York team for convening the conference, and to Grace Cooper who ensured all the tech ran smoothly.
The location of the next PSA conference has been announced as Liverpool and we look forward to yet another excellent set of parliaments panels.