The Westminster parliament is famous throughout the world, but often presented as relatively non-influential when it comes to making the law. Meg Russell and Daniel Gover‘s new book Legislation at Westminster is the most detailed study of the British legislative process for over 40 years, and challenges these assumptions. In a blog originally posted on the Constitution Unit, the authors summarise their findings on how different groups of actors at Westminster exercise subtle and interconnected influence, contributing to what they dub ‘six faces of parliamentary power’.
Author: psaparliaments
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Summer 2017 newsletter
Welcome to the summer edition of our newsletter – and an extra special welcome to all our new members that have accumulated over the past few months. In this month’s newsletter, we’ve got information on the following:
- Essay Competition winner
- Annual Conference in November
- Successful qualitative methods workshop
- Scottish Parliament: Commission on Parliamentary Reform – new report
- Welsh Assembly: Report on digital engagement published
- UCL report on public appointments published
- Opportunity – HE consultant for Parliament
- Recently on the blog
If you have any notices / messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know (including events, new research projects, grants, publications, etc.). Or other ideas for the group and feedback for us, they’re welcome too!
We’ll be taking a break over August, so expect our next newsletter at the end of September. Hope all our members have a great summer break!
Best wishes,
Marc (@marcgeddes), Louise (@LouiseVThompson), Alex (@A_Meakin) and Leanne (@LeanneMarieC)
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Essay Competition 2017 Winners
We are pleased to announce the winner of our essay competition this year: Tamara McCallum from Leeds (nominated by Cristina Leston-Bandeira), with Callum Allison (nominated by Louise Thompson) as the runner-up. The winning essays were judged anonymously by our expert panel, and the winners will receive their certificates at our conference in autumn.
The new cohort of select committee chairs will be scrutinising the work of a weakened government, write Mark Goodwin, Stephen Bates and our PSA Parliaments Co-Convener, Marc Geddes in a blog originally posted on Democratic Audit. Nine of the 28 are women, reflecting the advantage female MPs enjoy when they stand for committee elections. The current line-up also includes some well-known figures who have clashed with their party leaderships, creating an intriguing new dynamic.
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Update from Qualitative Methods workshop
The PSA Parliaments Group held a workshop on qualitative methods at the University of Liverpool on Wednesday 19 July. Read on for a report of the day.
The Scottish Parliament’s Commission on Parliamentary Reform, established by the Presiding Officer last year, reported in June. Its recommendations include that committee conveners should be elected by the whole Parliament, changes to First Minister’s Questions, the extension of the legislative process from three stages to five and the establishment of a new backbench committee. In a post originally posted on the Constitution Unit blog, Ruxandra Serban summarises the report and notes that several of the most substantive recommendations would bring the Scottish Parliament’s procedures closer to those of the House of Commons.
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Every picture tells a story
The extent to which legislation can change in parliament poses challenges to effective scrutiny by legislators and wider society. In this post Ruth M. Dixon and Jonathan A. Jones visualise the amendments to three recent bills to reveal the political drama of the parliamentary process.
Following the early General Election, all House of Commons select committees have had to be reconstituted. Marc Geddes, Co-Convenor of the PSA Parliaments Group, looks ahead to this week’s elections for Committee Chairs.
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EU referendum: one year on – MPs
How easy will it be for the Prime Minister to pass Brexit legislation through Parliament without a majority in either House? Prof Philip Cowley explores the prospects of rebellion among Conservative MPs, in a blog originally posted by UK in a Changing Europe.
On Wednesday 19th July 2017 we are holding a qualitative methods workshop at Liverpool University. The workshop will explore a wide range of research in this area including the use of parliamentary debates, elite interviews and focus groups, legislative texts and computer aided analysis. It is a great opportunity to learn more about using these techniques as well as some top tips if you are working on this type of research yourself. As always, there will be plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.