PSA ParliamentsDr Paul Seaward continues his A-Z of parliamentary history through its practices, customs and institutions. The blog series aims to reflect on institutional life: to show how institutions develop new practices, or adapt old ones, how they learn, how an institution keeps in step, or gets out of step, with, society at large. In his most recent blog, Dr Seaward looks at the role of the Leader of the House of Commons.
Scotland and Wales’ devolved political institutions, elected under proportional Additional Member electoral systems, were intended to produce a more consensual political culture. However, writes Felicity Matthews, although their electoral rules have increased the proportionality of representation, the structures of the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales have meant that a more consensual approach to policy-making has been more limited than might have been expected.
In a blog originally posted on The Conversation, Meg Russell, UCL, discusses the Lords stages of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.
Philip Lynch and Richard Whitaker discuss the work of the House of Commons Select Committee on Exiting the European Union, and its current split on the issue of hard or soft Brexit.
Andrew Defty, University of Lincoln, argues that the Opposition Day Debate on the Windrush affair in the House of Commons on Wednesday 2 May was a victory for Parliament.
Blerim Vela discusses the state of the parliaments of the six candidate countries and potential candidate countries from the Western Balkans that are aspiring to become members of the European Union.
In February this year, Oxford University Press published Exploring Parliament, which aims to provide an accessible introduction to the workings of the UK parliament. In this post, the book’s editors, Louise Thompson and Cristina Leston-Bandeira, explain why the book is necessary and what it hopes to achieve.
The electoral system by which members of parliament are elected shapes how legislators perceive their roles. Furthermore, write David C.W. Parker and Caitlyn M. Richter, in the case of the Scottish Parliament, both the electoral system and the change implemented prior to the 2007 election, whereby candidate names were removed from party-list ballots, have an impact on how Members of the Scottish Parliament spend their time and resources.
Dr Philip Aylett, House of Commons Clerk, discusses his doctoral research on select committees in the 1960s and 70s.
Meg Russell and Philip Cowley discuss Anthony King’s seminal 1976 article ‘Modes of executive–legislative relations: Great Britain, France and West Germany’.
