Author: psaparliaments

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The Butterfly Effect: Representation as Fractal Politics

What does a coastline have in common with effective rhetoric? Each component resembles something bigger, and bigger, and bigger. And what can this sort of fractal pattern show us about politics? To Alex Prior, fractals illustrate successful representation, and the impulses that drive it

‘As above, so below’

In launching the ‘Science of Democracy’ blog series, Jean-Paul Gagnon argues that democracy’s words require a new narrative. Agustín Goenaga credits Gagnon with a ‘living archive’ of stories. As I have argued previously, the best way of understanding narratives and stories – and their importance to democracy – is through their fractal nature.

Fractals are patterns; we see them constantly. They are in trees, lightning, coastlines. If you zoom in on any of those images, they still resemble themselves. This is self-similarity, a defining characteristic of fractals.

Self-similarity is a defining characteristic of fractals and of representation, which makes present what is not physically there

It is also a characteristic of representation (in its many forms): ‘making something present’, typically by acting on something or someone’s behalf. The notion that we can make present what is not physically there (a constituency, an idea, or anything else) is central to my research on parliamentary systems. Such systems depend on representatives making others’ voices and values present.

Fractal politics?

Self-similarity – and recursion (the repetition of a structure with continual reference, at each stage, to the structure itself) – is applicable to politics in many ways. For example, some advocate ‘fractal democracy’ as a practical model of governance. Says Jasper Sky: ‘Groups of seven people each choose one representative, and those seven representatives then meet to choose a representative, and so on, up several levels of representation…[with] the person at the top of the fractal hierarchy to be held fully accountable at every level.’

Fractals also give us a conceptual framework for politics. ‘Fractal politics’, writes Gordon Fletcher, ‘reflects the sociological sensibility that people seek out self-similarity in the form of opinions and worldviews that align with their own identity’. Fractals can help us understand not only political communication and support, but the ways in which we interact with our own social reality.

But how can we study (or even conceptualise) these opinions and those who ‘make’ them? And what does it really mean to seek out self-similarity (i.e., to seek ourselves) in the opinions and worldviews of others? The answer to both questions lies in representation.

A fractal reading of representation

Fractals can be read into theoretical works on representation, such as those of Derrida, who contends that ‘[e]verything begins by referring back (par le renvoi), that is to say, does not begin’. Derrida’s description centres around self-similarity and recursion (‘referring back’), as well as infinite replicability (‘does not begin’).

So far, so fractal. But fractals are even more relevant to contemporary representation theory. Saward’s theory of the representative claim identifies how ‘[m]akers of representative claims suggest to the potential audience: (1) you are/are part of this audience, (2) you should accept this view, this construction — this representation — of yourself, and (3) you should accept me as speaking and acting for you.’

Representation is a ‘claim’ made to an audience about the maker of the claim (a politician, for example), about what they ‘stand for’, and about that audience

Saward shows us how representation works. It is a ‘claim’ (or a series of claims) made to an audience about the maker of the claim (a politician, for example), about what they ‘stand for’, and about that audience.

A representative claim can be made at different scales (e.g., to a person, a group, a region), sometimes simultaneously. It is also accepted or rejected (i.e., interpreted) by audiences at many different scales (e.g., myself as an individual, as a citizen, as a person, etc). Fractals are invaluable in helping to conceptualise the way that representative claims in politics and beyond connect (or fail to connect) with their audience.

Effective (and ineffective) representative claims, in fractals

Consider Obama’s effective ‘yes we can’ 2008 slogan. People saw themselves within this slogan, at many (potentially infinite) scales:

Figure 1: An effective representative claim

Representative claim 'Yes we can' mapped out down to a fractal level, in a triangle figure

The left image resembles the right image at every scale. Effective representative claims resemble the audience at every level; audience members identify themselves within (with/in) the claim. We thereby read effective representative claims as successful appeals to self-similarity.

This process is not always successful. On 4 June 1958, against the backdrop of the Algerian War of Independence and the collapse of the Fourth Republic, Charles De Gaulle arrived in Algiers and uttered the famous words Je vous ai compris! [I understood you!]. To this day it is unclear who De Gaulle was addressing: Algerians? French Algeria? Colonists? The military?

Figure 2: An ineffective representative claim

Representative claim 'I understood you' mapped as a square figure, that is not fractal

The failure of this representative claim lies in a failed appeal to self-similarity. It failed to reflect (or even define) an audience at any scale.

Self-similarity matters for the maker of the representative claim, not just the audience. Obama included himself (‘we’) in a claim of common purpose, with/in which the audience recognised themselves. De Gaulle’s claim (‘I understood you’) lacks self-similarity. Audience members were left wondering who ‘they’ were, who De Gaulle was, and who/what he ‘stood for’.

Why fractals matter

The mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz is closely associated with chaos theory and the ‘butterfly effect’, by which small initial variations eventually yield drastic outcomes. For example – a person writes a short essay in Canberra; later, I see a broad and rich international academic debate. Fractals are a component of chaos, and a means of visualising it.

Studying representation in action (via fractals) clarifies the appeal of self-similarity, and why some statements are all-encompassing in their alienation

They also provide a means of studying narratives and stories within a ‘science of democracy’. Moreover, studying representation in action (via fractals) clarifies the appeal of self-similarity. We seek patterns, and we seek ourselves. This matters in terms of content and context. Alongside the political statements and patterns discussed earlier, consider that Obama reflected an audience (‘we’) descriptively and symbolically, in a way that De Gaulle could not, and arguably never claimed to (‘I…you’).

Fractals show us how ambiguous (but ostensibly all-encompassing) political and other statements are, in practice. They are all-encompassing only inasmuch as they alienate everyone at the same time. This mattered in 1958, it mattered in 2008, and it matters today.

By Alex Prior, Lecturer in Politics with International Relations, London South Bank University

Alex’s research focuses on public engagement with parliaments and other political institutions. His work also discusses the usefulness of narratives and storytelling in conceptualising, as well as strengthening, political engagement. He tweets @VoterEngagement

This post was originally posted on The Loop blog. See the original post here: https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-butterfly-effect-representation-as-fractal-politics/

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Blog

Breaking the Glass Chamber: Women, Politics and Parliament, 1945-1997

By Anna Muggeridge

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, women struggled to achieve political representation at the highest levels and at times, what progress and gains had been made could be lost. The number of women sitting in the House of Commons at any one time, for example, did not slowly but steadily increase. Fewer women were elected in the general election of 1951 than had been elected in 1950; fewer in 1966 than in 1964, and fewer in 1979 than (October) 1974. 1979 famously saw the first woman Prime Minister, but Margaret Thatcher’s relationship with feminism and the wider women’s movement is but one contentious aspect of her premiership. Notably, Thatcher only appointed one woman to a Cabinet position (Baroness Young, who served for just two years) and when Thatcher herself resigned and was replaced by John Major, the country had no women in Cabinet until 1992, when Gillian Shephard and Virginia Bottomley were appointed Education and Health Secretaries respectively. The first Black woman MP, Diane Abbott, was not elected until 1987, almost seven decades after the first white woman, Nancy Astor, took her seat in 1919. And in 1997, Labour’s landslide victory saw more than 100 women elected but this achievement was diminished and trivialised by labelling them ‘Blair’s Babes’. The story of women parliamentarians, and indeed women’s wider engagement with politics, through these years is therefore more nuanced and complex than an initial glance might suggest, and there is still much to be discovered about their experiences.

In September, the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary, University of London, will host a conference which seeks to bring together historians, political scientists, and sociologists to generate new conversations, relationships, and understandings of what politics meant to and for women in the second half of the twentieth century. In addition, the conference will play host to a number of current and former female members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, who will reflect on their own experiences, including Baroness Angela Browning, Dame Margaret Hodge, Baroness Estelle Morris, Baroness Emma Nicholson, Baroness Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Gillian Shephard, and Siân James. We will also hear from campaign groups including 50:50 Parliament and the Fawcett Society, who will lead discussions about the future of women in politics. Keynote lectures by historians, sociologists and political scientists – including Professor Laura Beers, Professor Julie Gottleib, Professor Khursheed Wadia, Professor Clarisse Berthèzene, and Professor Sarah Childs, will enable scholars to reflect on the different insights and perspectives from cutting edge research on women in political campaigns, parties and institutions.

It is only by drawing together those working in a range of disciplines, as well as those with direct experience of working in and with parliament, that a true picture of women’s experiences in politics in this period will start to emerge. More significantly, the conference offers the opportunity to develop new directions in research into women’s politics in the later twentieth century, shaping the questions and lines of enquiry of current and future researchers into this relatively understudied area of British political history.

Papers at the conference will address a variety of local, national and international themes. With talks by, for instance, Micaela Panes on women’s activism in South Wales before the 1970s; Tom Chidwick on women’s role in the campaign for a Scottish Assembly, and Charitini Ntini on women’s in the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, we ask how far national identities impacted on gendered politics in this period. Other papers explore women’s experiences on the international stage, something which has often been overlooked, such as Richard Johnson’s examination of women and Euroscepticism or Charlotte Lydia Riley’s analysis of women and British overseas development policy.

A number of talks will explore the experiences of women from minoritized backgrounds in this period. Farah Hussain’s timely keynote invites us to consider the role Muslim women play and have played within the Labour party. Beckie Rutherford asks how disabled women conceived of themselves as ‘political’, while Ashlee Christofferson will address the whiteness of ‘sex discrimination’ legislation. While there may, broadly speaking, have been progress in terms of the number of women sitting in Parliament between 1945 and 1997, there is still much opportunity to reflect on how other aspects of individuals’ identities—their race, class, sexuality or religion, for example—intersected with their gender within and outside the House of Commons.

Indeed, many of the papers at the conference will address campaigns which did not (necessarily) take place within parliament, such as Rose Debenham’s talk on the women of Greenham Common; Frances Galt’s research into women’s industrial disputes around the time of the 1970 Equal Pay Act, or Grace Heaton’s analysis of women’s roles in the campaign for the ordination of women. At the same time, other papers will consider how structures, institutions and cultures worked to exclude women: and how women sought to break down these barriers: with Emma Lundin providing a comparative perspective on gender quotas and gatekeeping strategies and Gillian Murphy reflecting on the post-war lobbying group Women for Westminster.

The conference therefore offers a unique opportunity for academics, politicians, policymakers and campaigners to come together to discuss the female political experience in the second half of the twentieth century, and, in so doing, open up new directions for current and future research. We very much hope that you will join us at the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary, University of London from Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 September. Details of how to watch the main sessions if you are not able to attend in person will be available nearer the time. You can view the full programme and sign up for tickets at the MEI website.

Dr Anna Muggeridge is Lecturer in History at the University of Worcester and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Mile End Institute.

Categories
News

June 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you in our last newsletter of the academic year:

  1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Mark Shephard
  4. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  5. Report Launch: Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland
  6. Petition against Job Losses at De Montford University
  7. Jobs at the University of Birmingham
  8. PSA Diverse Voices Scholarships 2022/23
  9. New Newsletter from IPSA’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
  10. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  11. Recently on the Blog

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our prizewinning group, please let us know.

We hope you have a lovely summer. See you in September.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022

We can’t remember if we’ve already mentioned it but PSA Parliaments won Specialist Group of the Year at the PSA awards ceremony!

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Exchange in Birmingham and online on 3rd-4th November 2022.

The theme of the conference is What Next?

Full details of the conference, including how to submit proposals, can be found here.

We are very much excited to be meeting up in person after two years of online conferences and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

Our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition is still open for entrants until Monday 6th June. The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Mark Shephard

This month’s interviewee is Dr Mark Shephard, Deputy Editor of Journal of Legislative Studies and Joint Chair of the Study of Scottish Parliament Group.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Houston, Kate Bush and the Kate Bush of Parliamentary Studies, and Prawns!

4. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Chris Monaghan (University of Worcester)
  • Matthew Flinders (University of Sheffield)
  • Alison Young (University of Cambridge)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Report Launch: Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland

Sean Haughey and Jamie Bow will be launching their report “Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland: Evidence from a Deliberative Forum” in Belfast on Thursday 9th June 2022 at 11am BST.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

6. Petition against Job Losses at De Montford University

58 members of staff at De Montford University, including those based in the Local Governance Research Centre, are facing redundancy.

Please consider signing the petition against the job losses here.

7. Jobs at the University of Birmingham

The Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham are looking to make four appointments at either Assistant Professor or Associate Professor level with one of the sub-disciplinary areas mentioned in the advert being ‘Democracy, Representation and Accountability’.

Further details of the jobs can be found here and here.

8. PSA Diverse Voices Scholarships 2022/23

The PSA has recently launched a new initiative to support black and minority ethnic scholars currently undertaking PhD study in politics and international relations and are looking to award three Diverse Voices Scholarships in 2022 to students who meet both the following criteria:

  • A PhD student (in their second or final year in 2022/23 academic year) affiliated to a UK Higher Education Institution; and,
  • Those self-identified as Black British, Asian British, or minority ethnic UK permanent residents.

Full details of the scholarships, including how to apply, can be found here.

9. New Newsletter for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists

Our good friends at the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists have launched the first of their re-vamped newsletters.

You can read the newsletter here and you can join RCLS for free and receive future newsletters here.

10. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Emmeline Ledgerwood has published ‘Armed with the necessary background of knowledge’: embedding science scrutiny mechanisms in the UK Parliament in the British Journal for the History of Science.

Caroline Bhattacharya has published Restrictive rules of speechmaking as a tool to maintain party unity: The case of oppressed political conflict in German parliament debates on the euro crisis in Party Politics.

Patrícia Calca has published a monograph Executive-Legislative Relations in Parliamentary Systems Policy-Making and Legislative Processes with Palgrave Macmillan.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union have published their third Global Parliamentary Report which examines public engagement in the work of parliament.

And, finally, a new issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly has been published.

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Stephen with details.

11. Recently on the Blog

We published one great blog this month:

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.

Categories
Events News

PSA Parliaments at #PSA22

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.

Categories
News

May 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some prizewinning updates for you:

  1. Prizes, Prizes, Prizes at #PSA22
  2. PSA Parliaments Roundup at #PSA22
  3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Date for Your Diary
  4. PSA Parliaments in Parliamentary Affairs
  5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  6. Urgent Questions with Louise Thompson
  7. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?
  8. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  9. New Website for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
  10. Other Events: Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies
  11. Call for Chapters: Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management
  12. Job: Research Fellow in French Politics & Social Media, University of Nottingham
  13. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  14. Recently on the Blog

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our prizewinning group, please let us know.

1. Prizes, Prizes, Prizes at #PSA22

We can’t remember if we’ve already mentioned it but PSA Parliaments won Specialist Group of the Year at the PSA awards ceremony!

The PSA said:

“The study of parliaments is one of the longest-standing yet also most vibrant and modern areas of British political science. The PSA is delighted to be able to recognise the considerable efforts of its Parliaments specialist group in contributing to this. In difficult circumstances since 2020, this specialist group has played an exemplary role in maintaining – indeed, in some respects enhancing – its own activities. The judges were particularly impressed by its communications with members and the high quality of the events that it organises. Recent years have seen several members of this specialist group win individual PSA prizes, further testament not only to the vitality of work in this area but of the continuing strength of the Parliaments group.”

Whoop!

As mentioned in the commendation, there were also prizes for several members and friends of the PSA Parliaments group:

  • Philip Norton won the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lifetime Achievement Prize!
  • Louise Thompson won the Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics!
  • Sarah Childs won the WJM Mackenzie Prize for the best book published in political science for her co-authored book with Karen Celis Feminist Democratic Representation!
  • Steven MacGregor won the Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in the field of government and public administration for his thesis Does government dominate the legislative process?
  • The Institute for Government won the Political Communicator of the Year Prize!

Whoop whoop!

2. PSA Parliaments Roundup at #PSA22

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.

3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Date for Your Diary

After two years online, we’re hoping it’s going to be third time lucky for holding our own Annual Conference in Birmingham.

Full details, including how to submit proposals, will be released soon but, for the time being, please keep Friday November 4th 2022 free.

The event will be hybrid and, as always, it will be free for members of the group.

4. PSA Parliaments in Parliamentary Affairs

In autumn 2020, we set out on a journey: a team brainstorming session gave rise to the idea of conducting a survey to map the current state of our sub-discipline, which was then followed with ideas about organising a roundtable and analysing the literature and authors of the sub-discipline more closely. And here we are, one and a half years later, with a collection of four articles and an editorial on the past, present and future of parliamentary and legislative studies, which will be published as a special section in Parliamentary Affairs in a few months. All pieces are available now as Advance articles!

In the editorial, we pose the central questions for the special section – what does the sub-discipline of parliamentary and legislative studies look like in the early 2020s, how did we get here, and where are we going? – and outline some of the problems faced by the sub-discipline.

In the article written by our team (and available open access!), we map the current state of parliamentary and legislative studies by drawing on our survey of 218 scholars from 48 countries. Concerns about an underrepresentation of women, ethnic minority and first-generation scholars seem warranted. Though most researchers use both qualitative and quantitative methods to some degree, cluster analysis identifies two groupings of academics with distinct research interests and views. A bibliometric analysis of 25 years of publications in Parliamentary Affairs, Legislative Studies Quarterly and The Journal of Legislative Studies challenges the common view that the sub-discipline is dominated by US-based/focused political science. There is an upward trend in internationalisation (as well as female authorship), a considerable pluralism in theoretical and methodological approaches, and emerging sub-literatures linking the US-focused literature and UK-focused literature.

Check out whether your survey response features in the article, whether you are a Qualint or Quantirc, and where you sit in the co-authorship network!

The special section is completed by three articles, in which Emma Crewe, Shane Martin and Michelle Taylor-Robinson build on their contributions to the roundtable we held in June 2021 and take turns kicking off important discussions on the past, present and future of the sub-discipline. A very insightful exchange between three scholars coming from different perspectives!

5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

Our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition is still open for entrants until Monday 6th June. The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

6. Urgent Questions with Louise Thompson

This month’s interviewee is Dr Louise Thompson, author of Making British Law: Committees in Action, co-editor of Exploring Parliament and Parliamentary Affairs, and PSA prizewinner.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about rivers, The Time Traveller’s Wife and tips on what to watch while ironing!

7. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch of Hannah White’s forthcoming book Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons? (Manchester University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 25th May 2022 between 11:00am and 12:30pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Hannah White (Institute for Government)
  • Mark D’Arcy (BBC)
  • Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds)
  • Baroness Morgan of Cotes (House of Lords)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

8. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are similarly delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of our very own Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Chris Monaghan (University of Worcester)
  • Matthew Flinders (University of Sheffield)
  • Alison Young (University of Cambridge)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

9. New Website for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists

Our good friends at the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists have launched a new website: ipsa-rcls.org

You can join RCLS for free and receive their quarterly newsletter here.

10. Other Events: Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies

Registration is now open for the Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies to be held in Budapest and Online on 12-13 May 2022.

Full details of the conference line-up and how to register can be found here.

11. Call for Chapters: Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management

The Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management is seeking chapter proposals on an ongoing basis – as long as there is space left – up to the deadline for the first draft: 1 April 2023.

Political management is about how to get things done by managing resources and people within political organisations. It applies and adapts concepts from business management to politics including five core areas of political management: Political Planning, Political Organising, Political HR, Political Leadership and Political Reviewing. Suggested chapter sections and themes and further details on the scope of political management are on the book project webpage.

The editor would welcome submissions from members of the parliamentary specialist group. Themes related to parliaments include workplace well-being, management of staff and advisors, and internal relationships and communication, and strategic and tactical use of rules for political goals/gain. The chapter proposal form can be downloaded here.

There will be an online workshop in early Autumn 2022 so, if you can submit by 1 July 2022, there is the potential to be included as a presenter, meet other authors and get feedback on your ideas.

You can also discuss potential ideas with the editor Jennifer Lees-Marshment.

12. Job: Research Fellow in French Politics & Social Media, University of Nottingham

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral Research Fellow position in political backgrounds and digital campaigning at the University of Nottingham. The role holder will help to coordinate an externally funded collaboration with the Digital Society Project, led locally by Dr William Daniel.

Full details of the Fellowship, including how to apply, can be found here.

13. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Simon Otjes has published What explains the size of parliamentary staff? in West European Politics.

Steven MacGregor’sprizewinning thesis Does government dominate the legislative process? can be downloaded here.

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Stephen with details.

14. Recently on the Blog

What with winning prizes and editing cracking special sections, we’ve only managed to publish one great blog this month:

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.

Categories
News

#PSA22 Winners

+++ BREAKING NEWS +++ BREAKING NEWS +++

For the second year in a row, we’ve had to break out the emojis to celebrate a very successful night for PSA Parliaments and its members at the PSA Annual Awards!

🥳 PSA Parliaments won the Specialist Group of the Year Prize for the second time in four years!

🥳 Philip Norton won the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lifetime Achievement Prize!

🥳 Louise Thompson won the Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics!

🥳 Sarah Childs won the WJM Mackenzie Prize for the best book published in political science for her co-authored book with Karen Celis Feminist Democratic Representation!

🥳 Steven MacGregor won the Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in the field of government and public administration for his thesis Does government dominate the legislative process?

🥳 The Institute for Government won the Political Communicator of the Year Prize!

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to our members for making PSA Parliaments such a now-officially-recognised brilliant group!

Categories
News

April 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you (a little later than normal because of the UCU strikes over pensions, pay and conditions):

  1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
  4. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?
  5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  6. PSA Trustee Elections: PSA Parliament’s Member, James Strong, is Standing
  7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  8. Recently on the Blog

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know.

1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022

Registration remains open for the 2022 PSA Annual Conference in York and online, 11th-13th April 2022. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA22 website.

As detailed below, the PSA Parliaments panels and roundtable are being held on the Monday and Tuesday.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition! The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

This month’s interviewee is Prof. Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, author of the recently published Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Idaho, romance novels and how long it’s been since Cheryl ate a curry

4. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch of Hannah White’s forthcoming book Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons? (Manchester University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 25th May 2022 between 11:00am and 12:30pm BST. The speakers include:

  • Hannah White
  • Alexandra Meakin
  • Baroness Morgan of Cotes
  • And another TBC!

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are similarly delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of our very own Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

6. PSA Trustee Elections: PSA Parliament’s Member, James Strong, is Standing

One of our members, James Strong, is standing for election to become a PSA Trustee.

If you have a vote, please check your inbox for details of how to vote.

7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Kristen Heim has published Beyond stereotypes: the evolution of five Southern African legislatures in the budget process in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Jennifer Piscopo and Susan Franceschet have published Policymaking, Constituency Service, and the Pandemic: How Working Remotely Transformed U.S. State Legislators’ Representative Roles in Representation.

Finally, new issues of Government and Opposition, International Journal of Parliamentary Studies, Journal of Legislative Studies, and Representation have all been recently published.

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Stephen with details.

8. Recently on the Blog

We published two great blogs in February:

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.

Categories
Events News

Special Newsletter about #PSA22

The timetable for the PSA Annual Conference, which is being held in York and online between the 11th and 13th March 2022, has been released.

All of the PSA Parliaments panels and roundtables are being held on the Monday and Tuesday. You can find full details of them on the conference timetable, on our website or, more quickly, below.

We hope to see you – either in-person or virtually – at the conference!

PSA Parliaments Timetable for #PSA22
Categories
News

March 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you (a little later than normal because of the UCU strikes over pensions, pay and conditions):

  1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Meg Russell
  4. Book Launch: Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees
  5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  6. New Overview of Mexico’s Congress of the Union
  7. Call for Applications: Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme
  8. EUGenDem virtual workshop: Gender and Leadership in the European Parliament at Midterm
  9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  10. Recently on the Blog

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know.

1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022

Registration is open for the 2022 PSA Annual Conference being held in York and digitally in April 2022. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA22 website.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the timetable for the conference has not been released. We will send details of timings for our five panels and roundtable once they are available.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition! The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Meg Russell

This month’s interviewee is the Director of the Constitution Unit, Prof. Meg Russell.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Turin, Camden Market, the Thin White Duke, and roofing!

4. Book Launch: Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of Cheryl Schonhardt Bailey’s forthcoming monograph Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees (Oxford University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 9th March 2022 between 3:00pm and 4:30pm GMT.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are similarly delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of our very own Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST.

Full details of the event, including how to register, will be announced soon so, in the meantime, please save the date.

6. New Overview of Mexico’s Congress of the Union

Many thanks to Emmanuel Sanchez for writing our latest Overview on the Mexican Legislature.

If you would like to write an overview of a parliament or legislature not yet covered on our maps, then please contact Chris.

7. Call for Applications: Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme

The Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme gives university-based researchers and staff working in knowledge exchange the opportunity to participate in a fellowship project with an office in UK Parliament. Each fellowship project in the Directed Call is proposed by a team at Parliament as a project on which academic input is needed.

There are 12 projects open for applications. You can read about the Call, including details on eligibility, funding, key dates, and the application process, here.

8. EUGenDem virtual workshop: Gender and Leadership in the European Parliament at Midterm

EUGenDem are holding a workshop to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 11th 2022 at 11:00-12:30 EET (10:00-11:30 CET).

The workshop draws together the findings of a new book edited by Henriette Müller (NYU Abu Dhabi) and Ingeborg Tömmel (University of Osnabrück): Women and Leadership in the European Union, published with Oxford University Press (2022).

Full details of the workshop can be found here.

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Ruxandra Serban has published The practice of accountability in questioning prime ministers: Comparative evidence from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom in the British Journal of Politics & International Relations.

Lotte Hargrave and Jack Blumenau have published No Longer Conforming to Stereotypes: Gender, Political Style and Parliamentary Debate in the UK? in the British Journal of Political Science.

David Judge has published ‘Would I Lie to You?’: Boris Johnson and Lying in the House of Commons in Political Quarterly.

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Stephen with details.

10. Recently on the Blog

We published two great blogs in February:

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.

Categories
News

February 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you:

  1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Jonathan Tonge
  4. Book Launch: Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees
  5. Job Opportunity at the University of East Anglia
  6. Other Events
  7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  8. Recently on the Blog

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know.

1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022

Registration has opened for the 2022 PSA Annual Conference being held in York and digitally in April 2022. If you haven’t booked yet, early bird prices have been extended to 4th February 2022. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA22 website.

As announced previously, we are running five panels and a roundtable on Exploring Parliament: Looking to the Future.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition! The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Jonathan Tonge

This month’s interviewee is the outgoing editor of Parliamentary Affairs, Prof. Jonathan Tonge.

Put on your Fred Perry, get yourself a suedehead and head on over to Urgent Questions to read about some great mod bands and – what is frankly – a shocking answer to a question about Star Wars.

4. Book Launch: Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of Cheryl Schonhardt Bailey’s forthcoming monograph Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees (Oxford University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 9th March 2022 between 3:00pm and 4:30pm GMT.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Job Opportunity at the University of East Anglia

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the ESRC’s flagship Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) at the University of East Anglia as a Senior Research Associate in Policy, Politics and Climate Change (Fixed-term).

The post holder will join an international team of scholars to conduct research on politicians’ role in accelerating climate mitigation in upcoming decades, commensurate with limiting climate change to 1.5 or 2°C of warming.

Full details can be found here.

6. Other Events

ECPR General Conference, University of Innsbruck, 22–26 August 2022

The ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments have released a call for papers for their section of the 2022 ECPR General Conference.

Full details can be found here.

Global Conference on Parliamentary studies, Budapest, 12-13 May 2022

The University of Public Service, Ludovika, have released a call for papers for a forthcoming global conference on parliamentary studies.

Full details can be found here.

7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Larissa Peixoto Vale Gomes has published an article called Bang for the Buck: Brazil’s Electoral and Political Financing Rules from a Gendered Perspective in E-Legis.

Brighton Msagalla and Marianna Visser have published an article called Agenda-setting through topic shift in Tanzanian parliamentary debate: The derailment of strategic manoeuvring in Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.

Alexander Hemingway has published an article called Does Class Shape Legislators’ Approach to Inequality and Economic Policy? A Comparative View in Government & Opposition.

Louise Thompson and Mitya Pearson have published an article called ‘Enter parliament but never become part of it’: How have the Greens in the United Kingdom approached opposition? in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations.

Peter Buisseret and Carlo Prato have published an article called Competing Principals? Legislative Representation in List Proportional Representation Systems in the American Journal of Political Science.

Mark Goodwin, Stephen Holden Bates and Stephen McKay have an article called Electing to Do Women’s Work? Gendered Divisions of Labor in U.K. Select Committees, 1979–2016 in the latest issue of Politics & Gender.

Lotte Hargrave and Tone Langengen have published an article called The Gendered Debate: Do Men and Women Communicate Differently in the House of Commons? also in the latest issue of Politics & Gender.

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy have recently released three new publications:

Kevin Orr and Sabina Siebert have published a Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Briefing called The Scottish Parliament: how the Parliament building shapes the workings of the institution.

A new issue of Parliamentary Affairs has been published, featuring a special collection on Parliaments as Workplaces: Gendered Approaches to the Study of Legislatures edited by Josefina Erikson and Tània Verge.

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Stephen with details.

8. Recently on the Blog

We published 8 (eight) great blogs in January!

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.