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Will the Ukrainian parliament and anti-corruption agency step up to the task of combating corruption?

In this blog, Franklin De Vrieze and Luka Glusac discuss the role of the parliament of Ukraine and the country’s ACA in combating high-profile corruption. Corruption is detrimental to the successful functioning of democratic political systems, economic development, and the provision of public services. To overcome corruption, countries in transition towards a more accountable system of governance increasingly count on the role of an Anti-Corruption Commission or Agency (ACA).

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What does ‘evidence’ mean to MPs and officials in the UK House of Commons?

Marc Geddes provides us with an overview of some important findings from his research into select committees. In this blog he discusses how committees collate and examine evidence to support their deliberations and to effect scrutiny.

© Irish Times
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Arrested Development? The Limits of Parliamentary Development in Chaotic Political Systems

Victoria Hasson and Graeme Ramshaw of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy discuss party-parliament nexus points using the South African Democratic Alliance Party as an empirical case-study.

© Parliament of South Africa website
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2016–17: Insights from the last ‘normal’ parliamentary session?

Dr Ruth Dixon of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, who was a Parliamentary Academic Fellow in 2018–19, discusses the efficacy of parliamentary scrutiny during 2016-2017. The post was originally published on the House of Lords Library blog but has been kindly shared with the PSA Parliaments group.

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Post-Legislative Scrutiny in Paris and London

How do the national parliaments of France and the UK assess the impact of the legislation they have adopted? In this article, Franklin De Vrieze compares the role of parliamentary committees and the outcome of the legislative impact assessments in both countries. It is based on the recent Westminster Foundation for Democracy publication, Post-Legislative Scrutiny in Europe.

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Monitoring Westminster: who is watching parliament?

Ben Worthy and Stefani Langehennig discuss their Leverhulme funded project on monitory democracy. The blog outlines some of the key implications for scrutiny of political representatives and the manner in which monitoring mechanisms are used in the arena of democratic conflict.

Panopticon – Wikipedia Commons
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(Re)-connecting parliamentary engagement: how storytelling can strengthen public-parliament dynamics in the UK

Alex Prior (University of East Anglia) and Cristina Leston-Bandeira (Leeds) discuss the potential for parliamentary story-telling to reach new audiences and to promote wider public engagement.

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Liaison Committee: A Prime Ministerial Performance?

Dr Mark Bennister of the University of Lincoln provides an incisive account of last week’s Liaison Committee. The piece considers the quality of scrutiny and the effectiveness of the Prime Minister’s performance during the session.

©BBC News online
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Self-reflections and Measuring Effectiveness of Public Accounts Committees from across the Commonwealth

Matthew Hamilton of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK Branch discusses the common challenges faced by Public Accounts Committees across the Commonwealth.

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Adapt or Perish. The Social and Material Conditions of the Transformations of the French National Assembly Over the Past Century

Jonathan Chibois of EHESS discusses recent technological innovations in the French National Assembly within the context of longer, historical trends in parliamentary reform.