We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some prizewinning updates for you:
- Prizes, Prizes, Prizes at #PSA22
- PSA Parliaments Roundup at #PSA22
- PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Date for Your Diary
- PSA Parliaments in Parliamentary Affairs
- PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
- Urgent Questions with Louise Thompson
- Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?
- Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
- New Website for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
- Other Events: Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies
- Call for Chapters: Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management
- Job: Research Fellow in French Politics & Social Media, University of Nottingham
- Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
- 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:
- The Prime Minister, the Parties, and the Ministerial Code by Michael Gordon
If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer, Chris.
