NEWS
Latest News
- March 2025 Newsletter
Hello! We anticipated a busy year for parliamentary scholars and it is proving to be so. We have lots of exciting news and opportunities for you in this newsletter.
- PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2025: Now open!
- Members’ Spotlight
- Opportunities
- Call for Papers
- Recent Publications
- On the Blog
- Overview of Parliaments Map
If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our group, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, Jack and Lauren1. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2025: Now open!
If you have been busy marking assignments during the last few weeks and have come across some excellent student essays, please consider nominating the student for our annual essay prize. This is a great opportunity for them to get their work recognised and read by a broader audience and add an award to their CV. The winner and runner-up will also receive £100 and £50 in prize money respectively.
The nominating academic has to be based at a UK institution and a member of our specialist group. The essay can cover any aspect of parliaments and legislatures and does not have to be written for a parliamentary studies module.
The deadline for nominations is Friday, 11 July 2025, and everything you need to know can be found on our website.
2. Members’ Spotlight
If you are looking for an interesting read, our very own PSA Parliaments co-convenor, Ruxandra Serban, co-authored two very interesting pieces on the UCL Constitution Unit Blog about the French parliament failed experimentation with Prime Minister’s Questions:
- Calixte Bloquet and Ruxandra Serban, Why the French parliament tried to introduce Prime Minister’s Questions
- Calixte Bloquet and Ruxandra Serban, Not interested in a second fiddle – why the French parliament’s Prime Minister’s Questions experiment failed
Additionally, Professor Meg Russel, the Director of the UCL Constitution Unit published a new piece ‘Should we be worried about the decline of parliamentary scrutiny?’. The article draws attention to a number of concerns (including fast-tracked government bills, government amendments to its own bills and late responses to select committee reports) and makes suggestions for improvements.
3. Opportunities
Share your research with the UK Parliament via POSTnotes
POST, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, is calling for research contributions and information relevant to the upcoming briefing below:
- The role of public engagement in improving trust in parliamentary systems and scrutiny: this POSTbrief will collect data on drivers of trust, effective interventions for public engagement and their impacts on parliamentary scrutiny. The POSTbrief may also consider available evidence about the impacts of public engagement on trust and parliamentary scrutiny from international contexts.
The deadline to submit a contribution to the role of public engagement in improving trust in parliamentary systems and scrutiny is 3 March 2025.
LSE Job
The London School of Economics and Political Science is looking for a Fellow in Political Behaviour. This is a 2-year position (with a possible extension for another year). The deadline for application is 7 March 2025, and the full details are available here.
Reminder: Senedd Review of the Public Bill and Member Bill processes
The Business Committee of the Senedd has opened a consultation to gather experiences and views regarding the operation and effectiveness of the Senedd’s scrutiny of Public Bills and Member Bills. You can share your expertise until 28 March 2025. All the information is available here.
4. Call for Papers
EPOP Annual Conference, 4-6 September, University of Exeter
A Call for Papers proposals is currently under way for the 2025 Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Annual Conference, organised by the University of Exeter (4-6 September 2025). Deadline to submit abstracts is 30 April 2025. The submission link is here.
5. Recent Publications
- Tim Mickler, Simon Otjes & David M. Willumsen, “Who gets to speak for the party? How parliamentary party groups select spokespersons” in Legislative Studies Quarterly.
- Mia Costa & Miguel M. Pereira, “Why parties can benefit from promoting occupational diversity in legislatures: Experimental evidence from three countries” in American Journal of Political Science.
If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Caroline with details.
6. On the Blog
We would love to have more contributions on our blog. If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer Jack.
- ‘Democratic innovation through AI in parliaments‘ by Franklin De Vrieze.
- ‘Does beauty matter? Physical appearance in candidate selection for German parliamentary elections‘ by Calixte Bloquet and Danny Schindler.
7. Overview of Parliaments Map
For anybody who wishes to cover any of the countries not yet covered in our map, contact our communications officer Jack.
News Archive
- March 2025 Newsletter
- February 2025 Newsletter
- January 2025 Newsletter
- December 2024 Newsletter
- Annual Conference: Highlights
- November 2024 Newsletter
- October 2024 Newsletter
- September 2024 Newsletter
- #PSA25: Call for Papers
- Annual Conference 2024: Call for Papers
- July 2024 Newsletter
- June 2024 Newsletter
- May 2024 Newsletter
- April 2024 Newsletter
- PSA Parliaments at #PSA24
- February 2024 Newsletter
- January 2024 Newsletter
- December 2023 Newsletter
- Highlights from our 2023 Annual Conference
- June 2023 Newsletter
- May 2023 Newsletter
- April 2023 Newsletter
- March 2023 Newsletter
- February 2023 Newsletter
- January 2023 Newsletter
- December 2022 Newsletter
- November 2022 Newsletter
- October 2022 Newsletter
- September 2022 Newsletter
- June 2022 Newsletter
- PSA Parliaments at #PSA22
- May 2022 Newsletter
- #PSA22 Winners
- April 2022 Newsletter
- Special Newsletter about #PSA22
- March 2022 Newsletter
- February 2022 Newsletter
- January 2022 Newsletter
- December 2021 Newsletter
- November 2021 Newsletter
- October 2021 Newsletter
- September 2021 Newsletter
- July 2021 Newsletter
- June 2021 Newsletter
- May 2021 Newsletter
- April 2021 Newsletter
- March 2021 Newsletter
- February 2021 Newsletter
- January 2021 newsletter
- December 2020 newsletter
- November 2020 Newsletter
- October 2020 Newsletter
- September 2020 Newsletter
- July 2020 Newsletter
- Welcome to our Bonus June 2020 newsletter!
- PSA Parliaments June 2020 Newsletter
- May 2020 Newsletter
- PSA Parliaments 2020 Conference: Parliaments in 20/20 Vision
- Latest news from the PSA Parliaments Group
- PSA Annual International Conference 2020: Parliamentary Panels
- Essay Competition: Judging Panel Announced
- November 2019 newsletter
- Essay Competition 2020
- #Parl19 Conference recap – Parliaments: Coming of Age?
- October 2019 newsletter
- Call for Papers: PSA20
- September 2019 newsletter
- August 2019 newsletter
- Registration Open – Parliaments: Coming of Age?
- Essay Competition 2019 Winners
- June 2019 newsletter
- May 2019 newsletter
- Our #PSA19 recap
- April 2019 newsletter
- March 2019 newsletter
- February 2019 newsletter
- December 2018 newsletter
- Essay Competition 2019
- Conference recap: Making Sense of Parliaments
- October 2018 newsletter
- Register now for #Parl18
- Essay Competition 2018 Winners
- September 2018 newsletter
- July 2018 newsletter
- June 2018 newsletter
- May 2018 newsletter
- PSA Parliaments Conference: Call for Papers/Blogs
- Statistical Analysis of Parliaments and Legislatures for Dabblers – 25 May
- April 2018 newsletter
- Our #PSA18 recap
- Exploring Parliament launched at Westminster
- March 2018 newsletter
- February 2018 newsletter
- Call for Papers: Post-Legislative Scrutiny
- Call for Papers: Committees in Comparative Perspective
- Essay competition 2018
- December 2017 newsletter
- Legislature in Uncertain Times – a huge success!
- Constitution Unit invites applicants for Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships
- November 2017 newsletter