Parliamentary Career Research Articles

Juge ou oracle? L’influence d’un chroniqueur politique sur la vie parlementaire au Québec

Background: Michel David has been publishing columns evaluating the performance of Québec parliamentarians since 1995. Analysis: This unique case, providing evaluations for 50 parliamentary sessions, allows us to quantitatively examine whether certain biases influence the evaluation of political actors by the media. Our results do not indicate any gender bias, but favourable biases toward senior ministers, the Parti Québécois, Québec Solidaire, and opposition members are observed. Moreover, the magnitude of the assigned ratings is positively associated with the likelihood of a legislator seeking re-election in subsequent elections. Conclusions and implications: We conclude that evaluations by the media elite can serve as effective predictors of parliamentary career trajectories.

A Sociologist in the Lords: The Parliamentary Career of Anthony Giddens

AbstractThis paper considers the parliamentary career of Anthony Giddens, perhaps the most significant contemporary case of a sociologist achieving political office. Despite this, Giddens’ contributions to the House of Lords have been ignored by sociologists who are largely critical of his later political work. Drawing upon literature from the sociology of intellectuals, most notably positioning theory, I seek to understand Giddens’ unique positioning as an ‘intellectual in politics’ tied to a patron, in his case Tony Blair and New Labour. Following a discussion of how Giddens positioned himself to gain a peerage, I show how his spoken contributions to the Lords reflect three themes: (1) The ‘Intellectual in Politics’ positioning, (2) The role of drama and narrative in his performances, (3) The allure of a ‘Professional’ positioning and the turn towards political, rather than intellectual, interventions. I conclude by highlighting key lessons the sociology of intellectuals and sociology more generally can take from Giddens’ time in the Lords.

Wentworth's ‘eye of the Court’: Sir George Radcliffe's management of the Irish parliaments of Charles I's reign.*

AbstractSir Thomas Wentworth (later earl of Strafford) has often been portrayed as an isolated figure working in Ireland, as lord deputy and then lord lieutenant, for the good of the crown. In reality, he had a tried and tested support system that developed throughout the 1620s in England and was implemented in the 1630s in Ireland. In the Irish Parliament of 1634–35, Wentworth relied heavily upon Sir George Radcliffe to generate and maintain support for governmental policy. He was an important conduit of information to Wentworth, assessing the mood of the House, acting as a controller of debate and reporting back to the lord deputy on discussions within committees. However, despite outward appearances that the Parliament of 1634–35 had been a success, the 1640 sessions of the 1640–49 Parliament were much more difficult to control in Wentworth's absence and Radcliffe struggled to maintain the government's initiative over parliament. Radcliffe's parliamentary career provides an insight into how Wentworth used his cabal to support his policies. This was fairly successful whilst Wentworth's government was strong, but, in Wentworth's absence, Radcliffe was unable to control parliament, contributing to the collapse of the regime.

In Defence of Steel: The Expulsion of Alfred Edwards MP and His Campaign against Steel Nationalization, 1948–1951

Alfred Edwards, MP for Middlesbrough East from 1935 to 1950, has been subject to only cursory academic attention during the lifetime of the 1945–51 Labour governments. Consequently, this article provides the first detailed study of Edwards’s parliamentary career. It is argued that Edwards was a significant national figure due to both his expulsion from the Labour Party in 1948 and the campaign he subsequently waged against Labour’s policy of steel nationalization in 1949. This article further argues that steel nationalization was the most controversial measure enacted from Labour’s 1945 manifesto, as it was neither a failing industry nor a public utility. As such, steel nationalization sparked huge internal debates about Labour’s future direction and, in Parliament, provoked the largest anti-government vote of Clement Attlee’s 1945–50 administration. In these years, Edwards played a substantial role in harnessing forces against steel nationalization, culminating in his campaign of 1949. Through an investigation of Edwards’s parliamentary conduct, expulsion from the Labour Party, and Steel Defence Campaign, this article concludes that, even if speaking on only one issue and for a short period of time, Edwards was a headline-generating figure whose absence from the historiography of these years is worthy of reassessment.

Transfuguismo persistente en la dinámica legislativa de Guatemala

Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries with the highest occurrence of party switching since its democratic era in 1985. In 2016, the Congress approved a regulation to sanction this practice, affecting the possibility of re-election and holding internal positions in Congress. The objective of this study is to analyze how, even with the legal containment of party switching, legislators find limits to this regulation to run for re-election and continue their parliamentary career. Based not the ambition theory and institutionalist literature, this study analyzes legislative careers, finding that informal rules in electoral institutions are decisive in admitting legislators with party switching, while belonging to legal or illegal networks seems to drive to successful political careers and positions in the legislative power structure under the cover of strong leadership.

Dysfunkcyjne przywództwo Jeremy’ego Corbyna

JEREMY CORBYN’S DYSFUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure at the helm of the Labour Party was exceptional for number of reasons. He was the first Labour leader elected directly by party members and supporters. Leftwing rebel, Corbyn had not spent a single day in frontbenches during his more than three decades long parliamentary career, until he took the top spot. Elected against the wishes of party establishment, he found himself in constant opposition with the parliamentary party. This unresolvable conflict both defined and doomed his leadership. This article looks at Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as a leader of the Labour Party as an example of a dysfunctional leadership. It tries to explain how and why it became leadership that was both ineffective and detrimental to the party

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

Dangerous or Goodly Passions: The Role of Emotion in Parliament and Politics

The Political Mistress: Intimacy, Emotion, and Parliamentary Politics in the Late 18th Century

AbstractBetween c.1796 and 1809, Lady Harriet Ponsonby, Countess Bessborough and Lord Granville Leveson Gower were embroiled in a passionate affair. Their liaison created tensions in aristocratic society because they belonged to rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories respectively. In the early years of their relationship, Leveson Gower was emerging on the political scene, while the countess was already well‐versed in the complexities of party politics. Leveson Gower thus solicited her advice and support and Bessborough duly shared her knowledge and insight into the political world, which created an unusual dynamic that scholars have yet to explore. This article examines several letters that Bessborough wrote to Leveson Gower to analyse how she supported her lover's fledgling parliamentary career and how she navigated their political differences. I argue that Bessborough adapted a rhetoric of affection, deference, duty, and loyalty, that was typically used by aristocratic wives, to justify her interest in her lover's career and her passion for parliamentary politics. This article contributes to scholarship that explores aristocratic women's political participation by examining the strategies a political mistress could employ to exert influence over men. It also illustrates the value of using methodologies from the history of emotions to investigate the drives and passions that shaped interactions in the late 18th‐century political sphere.

George Gavan Duffy and the legal consequences of the Anglo Irish Treaty, 1921–1923

George Gavan Duffy (1882–1951) was a signatory of the 1921 ‘Anglo Irish Treaty’. In the 1930s he enjoyed a notable judicial career and would rise to the position of President of the High Court of Ireland. This article examines a more neglected period of Gavan Duffy’s career. It focuses on his brief parliamentary career as a TD in the early 1920s and, in particular, his involvement in the creation of the Constitution of the Irish Free State. This analysis also examines the reasons for the divergence of Gavan Duffy’s position from that held by other signatories and supporters of the 1921 Treaty. By late 1922 Gavan Duffy had emerged as a determined critic of the Provisional Government and of the draft Constitution of the Irish Free State that emerged from negotiations in London. This analysis focuses on Gavan Duffy’s attempts to amend provisions of the draft Constitution that he believed went further than the strict legal demands of the 1921 Treaty. The conclusion assesses Gavan Duffy’s attitude towards the legal consequences of the 1921 Treaty and his attempts to mitigate their impact on the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State.

The Impossible Stability? The Italian Lower House Parliamentary Elite After a “Decade of Crises”

The article explores recent changes in the Italian parliamentary elite thanks to a novel set of data on Italian MPs between 1946 and 2018. After a first discussion on some crucial long-term trends of Italian Lower House MPs (their turnover rate, seniority, gender balance, party-related or institutional experience), we focus on the possible explanations of the profound transformation that occurred in the past decade: the rise of new party actors, the realignment between citizens and the parliamentary elites, or the use of different electoral systems. Subsequently, we point at three MP categories, taken as the most relevant proxies of the innovations in the Italian parliamentary elite. These categories are based on the length of MPs' parliamentary career, their previous party or institutional experience, and their gender. We discuss the changing numerical relevance of these categories, their parliamentary career patterns, and some features related to the institutionalization of MPs belonging to such categories. Two implications clearly emerge from our analysis. First, the changes occurred in the so-called “decade of the crises” (after the 2013 and 2018 Italian general elections) are critical in terms of a new influx of political amateur, female, and young MPs. The magnitude of this renewal can hardly be compared to any other relevant turning point of the Italian republican age and might signal the existence of a pattern of “impossible stability” for the parliamentary elite. Second, and partly in contrast with the first implication, despite such changes, the perspectives of parliamentary career and parliamentary survival remain very much subordinated to belonging to strong parliamentary party groups. This signals that, despite broad discussions about the positive role exerted by new political actors and the demand for a stronger descriptive representation, what seems to matter in the Italian Lower House is the presence of powerful political parties.

Responsive to whom? Political advising and elected careers in institutionalized democracies

Political advising is an increasingly important stepping-stone for a parliamentary career in many advanced democracies. Not only does this trend inform our understanding of political parties and careers, there is reason to think former advisors may have distinct attitudes compared to other types of elected officials. Using elite survey data from 42 elections in 21 countries, this study asks whether former political advisers approach representation differently than candidates with other pre-legislative experience. We find that they do. In particular, former advisors are more willing to prioritize their party’s preferences over their constituents’ preferences, and favor their own convictions over their constituents’ priorities. These findings demonstrate that former advisors have a more party-centric approach to representation, consistent with the “loyal partisan” archetype. The results inform our understanding of an increasingly common pathway to elected office as well as the personalization and professionalization of politics and have important implications for representative democracy.

Career lengths of members of parliament in mixed-member proportional electoral systems

ABSTRACT Mixed-member proportional electoral systems are characterised by having two types of members of parliament (MPs): district MPs elected directly in a district and list MPs elected via a party list. While it has been suggested that district MPs have a more prestigious and safe position than list MPs, little is known about possible differences between list and district MPs in terms of the length of their parliamentary careers. Using data on all New Zealand parliamentary elections between 1996 and 2017, the authors investigate to what extent the mode in which MPs are elected throughout their careers relates to the length of their careers. The authors’ descriptive and multivariate Cox Proportional-Hazards analyses show that those entering parliament as list MPs have shorter careers than those entering parliament as district MPs. However, when list MPs ‘move on’ to becoming district MPs during their parliamentary career, they have the longest careers of all MPs.

Power, Prerogative, and the Politics of Sir Thomas Wentworth in Early Stuart England and Ireland

AbstractInvestigations into the career of Sir Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafford, essentially consider three core aspects. First, his parliamentary career and whether his concern for upholding the ancient rights of the subject conflicted with his alleged apostacy when the prospect of office seemed achievable. Second, his deputyship in Ireland, specifically the manner in which he governed the kingdom and the wider implications that this entailed. Finally, his trial and execution, and the validity (or otherwise) of the charges laid against him. As a consequence, these assessments are generally limited to, or confined within, national perspectives, resulting in an assessment of Wentworth's career being too compartmentalized and lacking in overview. This article examines the merits of comparing his political style as the king's representative in northern England and Ireland. It demonstrates how Wentworth's presidency of the north was crucial in establishing prerogative rule, which he later applied with notable effect in Ireland. The parallels are important. In the course of governing two distinct jurisdictions he both encountered and confronted similar obstacles impeding what he called ‘good government’. Viewed from this perspective, Wentworth's accomplishments in the early years of his deputyship were drawn from past experiences where he successfully consolidated royal authority.

A Black Jurist in a Slave Society: Antonio Pereira Rebouças and the Trials of Brazilian Citizenship

A Black Jurist in a Slave Society: Antonio Pereira Rebouças and the Trials of Brazilian Citizenship

Astor the Fairy Godmother: The Intoxicating Liquor Act 1923

Before 1923, a teenager could go into a pub at the age of 14 to buy and drink beer; aged 16, he or she could also buy spirits. The Intoxicating Liquor (Sale to Persons Under Eighteen) Act 1923 introduced the principle that people should be aged 18 to drink alcohol in bars, a situation which still exists today. The Act was the first successful private members’ bill from a woman MP, Nancy Astor. Although well-known as a temperance advocate, Astor’s role in this Bill is frequently underplayed, with her husband Waldorf often credited at her expense, and the significance of Parliamentary process not well understood. This paper will examine the background to Astor’s Bill, which emerged from ongoing wartime liquor restrictions, a changing discourse over alcohol and public health after the First World War, and a petition signed by 116,000 teachers. It will analyse the Parliamentary passage of the Bill in the face of die-hard opposition from many of Astor’s fellow Conservative MPs. Although amendments made in committee reduced the impact, this should not detract from Astor’s considerable success in the House of Commons. Astor’s Bill should be better recognised for its long-lasting impact on British society, as a success for temperance campaigners, and as one of the great achievements of Astor’s Parliamentary career. Astor’s Bill was also opposed by Edwin Scrymgeour, Britain’s only Prohibitionist MP, and the paper will consider how his extreme version of alcohol control assisted Astor’s more moderate approach.

Edmund Burke and the First Stuart Revolution

AbstractThis essay reconsiders the character and significance of Edmund Burke's attitude to the seventeenth-century civil wars and interregnum. Burke may have venerated the “revolution principles” of 1688–89 over those of the 1640s, not least in theReflections on the Revolution in Francein which he notoriously compares English dissenting radicals to regicidal Puritans. Yet his response to the first Stuart revolution is more complex than has commonly been allowed and is closely bound up with Burke's earlier parliamentary career as a prominent member of the Rockingham Whig connection. The revival of an anti-Stuart idiom within the extra-parliamentary opposition of the 1760s, together with the mounting conflict with the North American colonies, gave renewed prominence to the memory of the civil wars within English political discourse. The Rockinghamites attempted to exploit this development—without compromising their own, more conservative reading of seventeenth-century history—but they were also its victims. In the years that followed, Burke and his colleagues were repeatedly identified by their political opponents with the spirit of Puritan rebellion and Cromwellian usurpation. These circumstances provide a new perspective on Burke's interpretation of the nation's revolutionary past; they also offer important insights into his writings and speeches in response to the French Revolution.

A Means to an End and an End in Itself: Select Committee Membership, Parliamentary Roles and Parliamentary Careers, 1979–Present

AbstractCommittees are important vehicles for parliamentary careers both as means to a (ministerial) end and as an end in themselves. This article explores the relationship between select committee membership and parliamentary career by analysing committee membership and frontbench appointments for the 2130 Members of Parliament (MPs) first elected since 1979. We focus on two of Donald Searing’s four informal backbench roles—Policy Advocates and Parliament Men and Women—and three of the four formal leadership roles—Whips, Junior Ministers and Ministers. The membership patterns of select committees suggest that MPs approach this aspect of their parliamentary work in different ways concomitant with the roles of Generalist and Specialist Policy Advocates and Good House of Commons Men and Women. The membership patterns also suggest that different groups of MPs—by party, gender and ethnicity—often (choose or are forced to) approach committee work in different ways. We also find membership of some committees is more strongly associated with leadership roles than others.

The Infant Hercules and the Socialist Missionary: Ellen Wilkinson in Middlesbrough East, 1924–1931

Best known for her role in the Jarrow Crusade or as minister of education in the post-war Attlee government, Ellen Wilkinson’s pre-Jarrow parliamentary career has often been subject to only cursory...

‘A Young Tory’? The Early Parliamentary Career of Charles James Fox 1768–74

AbstractThis article seeks to redress the neglect, even by his biographers, of Fox's early career, when he made over 250 speeches in the house of commons in six years. The period when young Fox supported government was an inappropriate prelude to his later fame as opponent of Prime Minister Pitt and champion of ‘liberal causes’. He was anything but a ‘man of the people’ in his authoritarian attitude and detestation of popular opinion, and yet there were signs that he would not be an administration man in the mould of his father, Henry Fox.

Образы и оценки муниципальных депутатов в представлениях локальных элит Пермского края

Introduction. In modern Russia the composition and structure of municipal representative bodies come to the fore in the context of local policy and municipal management. While public opinion is dominated by the characteristics of the poor status of the Deputy at the local level. The study of the representations of local elites about municipal representative bodies will determine their attitude and willingness to this status as potential members.Aims. The article is devoted to study of the perception of deputies of municipal representative bodies of the Perm Krai in the views of the local elites not the deputies.The following qualitative and quantitative methods were used (discourse analysis, content analysis, expert interviews).Results. Based on expert interviews, the article explores the characteristics, essential qualities, motivation in the parliamentary career. It was revealed that honesty, responsibility, openness, own opinions, own position, professionalism and competence outline a set of necessary qualities of a municipal deputy. The functional aspect in the activities of the deputy of the municipal level is considered by experts in the functions of representation and decision-making. The question of who must be a municipal Deputy is solved through the prism of the representation of different professional groups, the two main in particular - state employees and businessmen. Key evaluation topics in regards to MP in the views of the local elites, among which the following are highlighted: overall low rating of activity of deputies because of the lack of real power and authority, as well as the lack of a parliamentary career, are identified.Conclusion. The Symbolic incentives in the form of an image status and the ability to influence the budget process are key positions of a positive image of the deputy of the municipal level in the assessment of the elites. The power of the representatives in local Assemblies is estimated as insignificant, since, according to experts at the local level, it is in the hands of the Head of the municipality and administration. Impact on increasing the role of this institution in the political process, in their opinion, can the development of normative acts regulating the activities of the deputies in the municipalities.