PSA ParliamentsIn 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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jonathan Chibois of EHESS discusses recent technological innovations in the French National Assembly within the context of longer, historical trends in parliamentary reform.
The physical distancing at Westminster is also leading to increased political distancing of government from parliamentary scrutiny, writes David Judge. He explains that the latter has already been happening and is likely to continue, even after the social distancing measures are lifted. The blog was originally written for the LSE Politics and Policy page but has been kindly shared with the PSA Parliaments Specialist Group.
Franklin De Vrieze, Senior Governance Adviser at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy discusses the role played by independent oversight institutions in ensuring democratic accountability. As governance processes occur within a country’s political-economic and legal-constitutional context, bringing accountability to national governance cannot be left to those individuals and groups holding power. Independent oversight institutions have a specific role in strengthening accountability which is complementary to the oversight role of parliament. Because the relationship between parliament and independent oversight institutions is sub-optimal in many countries, this article discusses the issues shaping their relationship, outlining how to make it more productive.