Parliament Research Articles

Experience in addressing the gender issue in post-Soviet countries

This article examines the experience of addressing the gender issue in countries formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the national and historical characteristics of all independent states are markedly different, the purpose of the paper is to study the challenges that women had to face, to identify the positive experience of the decision in each case as well as to identify the general trends of such decisions. On the basis of statistical data published by the competent authorities of both the independent states themselves and the Economic Commission for Europe, an analysis was made of such key parameters of equality as employment, average wages, level of access to information, the relative number of representatives in leadership positions in state institutions and representative offices in national parliaments, as well as the general trend of legislative initiatives designed to combat discrimination against women. As a result of the analysis of the dynamics of indicators, the leading states in solving the gender issue were identified, and an assessment was made of the development of this area in the future. This analysis led to the conclusion that the transition of women’s rights issues to the plane of public discourse, the absence of silence concerning the problem, as well as the observance of voting rights are a guarantee of a significant reduction in the level of discrimination in society. The practical significance of the research lies in identifying the leading countries where the gender issue has been resolved positively, as well as formulating recommendations based on their experience for countries where the gender balance is still not respected, which will lead to a general strengthening of the protection of women’s rights.

Political Economy of the Carnation Revolution (1974–75)

Following the military coup of April 25th, 1974, Portugal experienced a revolutionary period characterized by unprecedented levels of labor unrest and political radicalization. As the social landscape suffered a profound transformation, key-sectors of the economy were nationalized, many firms went into self-management, and large areas of the south were swept by land occupation. When the country’s democratic Constitution was brought to vote on April 2, 1976, it contained numerous references to “socialism,” “self-management,” “planning,” and “agrarian reform,” bearing witness to a widespread commitment to build a “classless society.” What eventually took shape, however, was a mixed economy under a parliamentary regime, very similar to that of countries like Greece and Spain, both of which experienced far less dramatic democratic transitions. Drawing on the writings of Immanuel Wallerstein, Giovanni Arrighi, and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, this article analyzes the plans and strategies devised to ensure a socialist transition in the semiperiphery of the capitalist world-system during the 1970s.

Stages of Development of the Legal Basis of Parliamentary Control in the Republic of Uzbekistan

This article explores the stages of development of the legal basis of parliamentary control in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Since gaining independence in 1991, Uzbekistan has undergone significant changes in its parliamentary system, aiming to enhance the role of parliament in overseeing and controlling the executive branch. The article examines three key stages of this development. The initial years of independence witnessed the establishment of a bicameral parliament, but parliamentary control mechanisms were relatively weak, with executive dominance prevailing. Constitutional reforms in 2005 led to the formation of a unicameral parliament, the Oliy Majlis, which sought to strengthen parliamentary oversight. Provisions related to parliamentary control were introduced in the new constitution, signaling a shift towards greater accountability. The article then delves into the period from 2016 to the present, highlighting the efforts to strengthen parliamentary control mechanisms. A law regulating the activities of parliamentary committees was enacted, empowering them to conduct inquiries, request information, and hold public hearings. The establishment of a Commissioner for Human Rights further bolstered parliamentary oversight, as parliamentarians gained the authority to invite the Ombudsman to report on human rights issues. Furthermore, amendments to the law "On the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan" in 2019 granted the parliament expanded powers to review and approve government programs, budgets, and reports, strengthening its role in monitoring the executive branch. The article concludes by emphasizing that the development of parliamentary control in Uzbekistan is an ongoing process, as the country continues to refine its legal framework to promote transparency, accountability, and democratic governance. The stages of development discussed in this article shed light on the country's evolving parliamentary system and highlight the efforts made to enhance the role of parliament in ensuring effective oversight and control over the government's activities. This article describes the stages of development of the legal basis of the institution of parliamentary control in the Republic of Uzbekistan in the national legislation.

The Parliamentary Regime: The Political Philosophy of Confederation

AbstractThis article clarifies the intellectual origins of Canadian parliamentary government by situating Confederation within a specific strand of liberal political thought. My argument is that the Fathers of Confederation adhered to the political theory of parliamentarianism. Though liberal constitutionalists, the Fathers of Confederation expressly defended a parliamentary political framework that they considered superior to the American system of checks and balances—one characterized by a powerful elected assembly restrained by an unelected upper house, responsible ministers serving in Parliament, and a constitutional monarch. In elucidating the theory of parliamentarianism that underlies the political project of Confederation, my goal is not only to examine a problem in nineteenth-century Canadian political thought but to ground our current political situation within a larger historical perspective.

Subsidiarity Ex Ante and Ex Post: From the Early Warning System to the Court of Justice of the European Union

AbstractThe subsidiarity principle divides competences between the European Union and its Member States. The Lisbon Treaty suggests a connection between ex ante and ex post subsidiarity review. Ex ante, national parliaments were given a role via the early warning system (EWS). Ex post, legislation is subject to review by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). More than 10 years after Lisbon, this article is the first to theorize and evaluate whether there is indeed a connection. Our theory predicts a conditional connection. Quantitatively, we provide a two‐way classification of Member States based on their use of the EWS and CJEU subsidiarity cases. Qualitatively, we look back from court cases to the Council stage and analyse the Advocate General's opinions in subsidiarity cases. We find a weak conditional connection. A key explanation appears to be the Court's limited willingness to enforce subsidiarity and hence the limited incentives to go to court.

Party theory of parliamentary debate and the endogenous nature of parliamentary institutions: Theoretical implications from Japan’s diet

We add new insights to the party theory of parliamentary debate proposed in Proksch and Slapin’s The Politics of Parliamentary Debate by combining a quantitative replication analysis of floor speeches with a qualitative explanation of the endogenous transformation of two institutions mediating elections and parliamentary speech in the Japanese Diet. Although the House of Representatives in Japan used a single non-transferable vote system with particularly strong personal vote-seeking incentives, our analysis based on a new dataset shows that, contrary to the theory’s predictions, the pattern of speech activities among party leaders and backbenchers is close to that of Germany, which has a party-centered proportional representation system. Such seemingly contradictory results, however, can be consistently understood within the scope of the theory if we consider the patterns of endogenous change in the parliamentary system and party organization. These results highlight the potential for further development of the theory.

Portugal: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractIn this article, the main events of political life in Portugal are discussed. It includes a report on general elections in 2022, the formation of a new Socialist absolute majority government led by Prime Minister Antonio Costa, and major parliamentary decisions and debates. The year 2022 started with early general elections, strengthening the ruling Socialist Party, which won a majority of seats in the national Parliament. However, it took some time for the new government to learn to govern in the new context.

Polity Size Matters? The Effect of Country Size on Politicians' Professionalization

AbstractThis article examines the effect of country size on the professionalization of politicians in six European micro-states and a large-scale democracy – Germany – since 1980. The article revisits an ongoing debate about the extent to which either country size or government size are causal factors in the individual professionalization process. Using an original dataset consisting of 6,940 parliamentary mandates – 2,809 individuals – in national parliaments, the article shows that country size is a determinant of the degree of politicians' professionalization. The article further demonstrates that political parties' gatekeeper role is the key causal mechanism explaining the influence of population size on politicians' professionalization.

Early Warning System from the point of view of the administrative representatives of national parliaments in Brussels

Under Protocol No. 2 on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality, national Parliaments have been granted participation in EU law-making through the Early Warning System (EWS). Within the framework of this mechanism, national chambers can evaluate EU legislative proposals on subsidiarity grounds, within an eight-week period, following their submission by the European Commission. The contribution of the National Parliaments Representatives at the European Parliament (or the liaison officers) is crucial for the national chambers to follow up on the Union agenda and participate in EU affairs. This study offers novel data that were collected through a questionnaire administered to the liaison officers in 2022. In brief, these transnational practitioners tend to express scepticism with regard to the EWS and its eventual reform, and at the same time, they would welcome an enhancement of the much broader “political dialogue” between the European Commission and national Parliaments.

Parliamentary Committees and Ex-post Oversight: Institutional Options and Design

Abstract Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.

Book review - Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers' Fight for Municipal Socialism by Shelton Stromquist. 2023

Shelton Stromquist has written a long and very rich account of the international history of local socialist activism, often called municipal socialism. Drawing on various examples, Stromquist wants to shift the focus from national parliamentary politics and centrist narratives to the local level, where the labour movement was built. At a time when local struggles such as affordable housing are once again on the agenda of progressive activists, this book offers important insights into the early local history of labour politics and inspiration for contemporary activists and municipal socialists.

The Impossibility of Party Unity in Peru: Party Affiliation, Subnational Electoral Competition and Party Discipline (2011–2019)

Party division in Peru is a constant event and has become an expected feature of Peruvian parliamentary politics. For instance, in 2016, the elected Congress was composed of six parliamentary groups, and at the moment of its dissolution, that number doubled. This article explores the factors that produce such rapid division in the Peruvian Congress during two parliamentary periods (2011–2016, 2016–2019). It argues, through quantitative analysis, that there is a direct and negative relationship between the fragmentation of parliamentary groups and party discipline due to party affiliation and the dynamics of subnational party competition.

Routine Presidential Activism by Going Public under Semi-Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes

Presidential research commonly focuses on the most prominent cases of going public by presidents in semi-presidential regimes: such as expressing a lack of trust in the cabinet members. However, it is also important to understand the day-to-day functioning of semi-presidential republics and routine efforts by the presidents to insert themselves into government decisions. Moreover, presidents in parliamentary republics may also try to influence the government through the power of the public word. In this article, we conceptualize going public as an instance when a president weighs in on the performance of the cabinet and/or individual minister in the media. We analyze the focus and intensity of these instances in semi-presidential (Lithuania) and parliamentary (Latvia) regimes. Our main finding is that on average, presidents are more routinely active in public under semi-presidentialism. We also find that the intensity and focus of presidential attention on the cabinet are highly correlated to the media attention. Furthermore, presidents go public more often during the first year of their terms and pay more attention to foreign and defense policy than to other areas. Our results tend to support the presidency-centered arguments that emphasize the institutional prerogatives and political culture in the explanation of presidential activism.

Renewable energy, GDP and CO2 emissions in high-globalized countries

Introduction: Policymakers devote significant efforts to decrease CO2 emissions, as climate change has Q7 numerous adverse impacts on society. While the global level of CO2 emissions has been gradually rising since the 1990s, the highest growth was observed in low- and middle-income economies. This study differs from nascent research as it fills the gap by exploring the GDP-energy-CO2 emissions nexus for the top 50 highly globalized countries under analysis. Our study explores the multidimensional relationship between economic growth, renewable energy, globalization, and climate change, using CO2 emissions as a proxy for air pollution, and focusing on the most globalized countries.Methods: In this study, we rely on dynamic panel estimators such as the two-step system GMM estimator. System GMM estimator is recommended to use with the panel data when 1) the correlation between a dependent variable and its lag is above 0.8; and 2) the number of countries (i.e., 50 countries) exceeds the time frame (i.e., 19 years). As our study design fits these conditions, we use extension of a two-step system GMM estimator which restricts the expansion of instruments. Moreover, a two-step system GMM estimator is especially efficient as it controls for heteroskedasticity.Results: We find that renewable energy and globalization decrease CO2 emissions. If causal, a 1 percentage point increase in the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption leads to a 0.26% decrease in per capita CO2 emissions. Similarly, we find that a larger representation of women in national parliament contributes to the reduction in CO2 emissions. GDP per capita has an inverted U-shaped relationship with CO2 emissions and the turning point is approximately 67,200 international dollars adjusted for PPP.Discussion: Our results suggest that renewable energy significantly contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions while GDP per capita has an inverted U-shaped link with CO2 emissions. Thus, we confirm the presence of the EKC hypothesis for highly-globalized countries. Consequently, our study offers several policy implications. Firstly, it is important for developing countries to increase the share of energy consumed from renewable energy sources. This will have a positive effect not only on air quality, but also on economic growth. Thus, it is essential to increase investment in the renewable energy sector and create conditions and benefits for the rapid adoption of renewable technologies by the private sector and households. Secondly, it is crucial to increase the quality of investment climate. Developing countries can significantly gain from globalization-driven FDI as this can lead to technology transfer, especially in the energy sector. Thirdly, our results suggest that improving female empowerment can significantly reduce the vulnerability to climate change. This can be achieved by increasing women’s human capital and investing in women-led organizations and communities.

The partisan foundations of parliamentary speech. How parliamentary party groups decide who gets to speak for them

This study examines how parliamentary party groups decide who speaks for them on specific issues in parliament. We build on three strands of the literature: the work on the institutional foundations of parliamentary speech; the literature on committee assignments in parliamentary systems which points to different rationales behind parliamentary specialisation and the division of labour; and the literature on issue competition. First, we expect that the party leadership will assign more speaking time on issues that parties ‘own’ to Members of Parliament (MPs) they favour. Second, we expect an informational rationale regarding the allocation of speaking time by which MPs speak on issues for which they have pre-existing expertise. Third, we expect MPs to speak on issues if they have ties to relevant constituencies outside parliament. We analyse a new data set of all speeches in the Dutch lower house between 1998–2017. The analyses point to the importance of two rationales in the allocation of speaking time: high-status MPs (reflected by their list positions) speak on issues that parties prioritise, and MPs speak on issues of which they have specialised knowledge. Our analyses shed important light on how parliamentary party groups (PPGs) function, specifically how they divide labour within their ranks.

Modulation of Democracy: Partisan Communication During and After Election Campaigns

AbstractIt is well known that politicians speak differently when campaigning. The shadow of elections may affect candidates' change in tone during campaigns. However, to date, we lack a systematic study of the changes in communication patterns between campaign and non-campaign periods. In this study, we examine the sentiment expressed in 4.3 million tweets posted by members of national parliaments in the EU27 from 2018 to 2020. Our results show that (1) the opposition, even populists and Eurosceptics, send more positive messages during campaigns, (2) parties trailing in the polls communicate more negatively, and (3) that the changes are similar in national and European elections. These findings show the need to look beyond campaign times to understand parties' appeals and highlight the promises of social media data to move beyond traditional analyses of manifestos and speeches.

Constitutional reform of 2020 reducing the number of members of Parliament in Italy: towards the rationalization of the parliamentary system?

The article aims to analize the nature and systemic implications of the constitutional reform carried out in the Italian Republic in 2020, which reduced the number of members of the chambers of parliament. It was the first revision of the Italian constitution since 2001 that was approved in a nationwide referendum, which was the condition for the entry into force of the amendment (two other constitutional revisions: from 2005 and 2016, were rejected in a referendum vote). The concept of rationalization of parliamentarism has been adopted as the leading theoretical reference in this text. The initial research question focused on to what extend the postulate of rationalization of the Italian parliamentarism was achieved by the way of undertaken initiatives to revise the constitutional order. The analyzes carried out allowed to formulate a proposal to explain the potential of rationalization of parliamentarism within the so-called partial reform in the face of failures in implementing comprehensive reforms.

Comparing and Contrasting Bicameralism in Britain and Pakistan: An Analysis

The parliamentary form of government is one of the systems to govern the states among many other systems that developed over the process of centuries, evolving from social contracts, customs to traditional linkages, reaching, finally, at modern state system. It can further be divided into single national parliament (Unicameral) and a system consisting of two houses (Bicameral). Having diverse systems of governance, every state is working to keep peace and stability and create a progressive society that can ultimately attain a better world to live in. Pakistan got its independence in 1947 and adopted the Westminster system of governance which Britain had attained after a process of centuries since the signing of Magna Carta on June 15, 1215. Pakistan has been in struggle since its inception for a viable system of governance starting from a constitution borrowed from the Government of India Act 1935 to its own constitution approved in 1973. It shifted from a unicameral system of government to a bicameral federal state system but still a lot more is required to attain a democratic form of government that can respond to the local challenges. Keeping the bicameral system of Britain in view, the present study is planned to compare it with that of Pakistan to create a better understanding of parliamentary system of both states.

The History and Impact of Women in the Parliament of Western Australia: From Golden Age to Disappointment

ABSTRACT Despite their significant contributions to parliament and the Western Australian community, the role of women in the WA public sphere has historically been overlooked due to cultural and structural prejudice. To remedy this erasure, this article assesses the body of scholarly work that has focused on women serving as members in the Parliament of WA. Finding that the literature identifies three phases of women’s engagement with the Parliament of WA, these phases can be periodised as follows: the first is the ‘age of individuals’ where a select few pioneering women entered the parliament due to a variety of historical specificities. The second we term the ‘age of Labor women’, as the literature widely acknowledges that the 1983 Burke government adopted affirmative action policies that saw a significant increase of women MPs hailing from the Labor Party. The third we label the ‘age of disappointment’, as the literature underscores the bipartisan deprioritising of women’s policy issues in the 1990s–2000s, alongside the existence of continuing barriers to gender equality in Australian parliamentary politics. Suggestions for further research are also identified, including the impact of neoliberalism on women’s representation, and the emergence of intersectionality as a key paradigm in women’s studies. .

Parliamentary Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation: Lessons from Comparative Experience

AbstractRecent years have seen an increase in the use of delegated legislation to implement major policy decisions in the UK. This has exacerbated the longstanding criticism that Westminster lacks sufficiently robust procedures for parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. However, the UK is not the only country to use delegated legislation, or to face the challenge of ensuring it receives adequate parliamentary scrutiny. This article therefore places the UK system in wider context by comparing it to six other national parliaments. We highlight one comparative strength of the UK system, two weaknesses it shares with the other six cases, and one way in which the UK might learn lessons from elsewhere. Overall, our evidence suggests that no one country offers a clear template for more rigorous parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. Successful reform of the UK's system is likely to require creative procedural innovation.