Parliamentary Context Research Articles

Taking the Right Lessons from Lenin and the Russian Revolution

Eric Blanc's article, “Taking the Right Lessons from Lenin and the Russian Revolution,” critically examines the enduring influence of Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution on socialist movements, highlighting the challenges of applying revolutionary strategies in parliamentary contexts. Blanc argues that while Leninist parties have played significant roles in advancing working-class interests, their revolutionary approach has been less effective in advanced capitalist democracies. He emphasizes that the Russian Revolution demonstrated the potential to overthrow capitalism but warns against overgeneralizing its strategies. Blanc critiques the myth of Bolshevik exceptionalism and the rigid organizational discipline often associated with Leninism, proposing instead a more flexible and inclusive approach to building socialist movements. By analyzing the experiences of socialist parties across the Russian Empire, particularly in Finland and Latvia, Blanc illustrates the effectiveness of uniting radical and moderate socialists within broader workers' parties. He argues that a strategy rooted in democratic socialism, adaptable to varying political contexts, offers a more viable path to socialist transformation than the insurrectionary models promoted by early Leninists. Blanc concludes that the key to advancing socialism lies in scaling up working-class and socialist organization through transformative reforms and democratic engagement, rather than adhering to prescriptive revolutionary strategies.

Crowdsourcing the digital parliament

ABSTRACT Parliaments will eventually not evade the digital evolution of every institution to become data-driven organisations. This study examines the Hellenic Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Team, a pioneering crowdsourcing initiative aimed at processing and analysing parliamentary data. Under certain conditions, crowdsourcing, in other words, the power of the people, can be appropriately channelled and exploited to support representative institutions and their societal stakeholders in managing their change processes. Based on survey findings, this research highlights the profiles and motivations of participants, identifies best practices for crowdsourcing in parliamentary contexts, and demonstrates the initiative's impact on improving data accessibility and transparency. The results suggest that the Hellenic OCR Team significantly contributes to the digital evolution of parliamentary functions and promotes greater public involvement in the legislative process.

Feminist institutional responses to anti-gender politics in parliamentary contexts

ABSTRACT In the context of the prevalence of anti-gender politics in Europe, political institutions such as parliaments have become arenas of political struggles around gender and gender equality. While feminist scholarship has studied anti-gender politics, less attention has been paid to feminist responses to such opposition. The contribution of this article is to conceptualize feminist responses to anti-gender politics within political institutions, which we name feminist institutional responses. This conceptualization entails proposing a set of analytical categories for capturing forms of feminist institutional responses – namely, knowledge, coalition building, rule making, and everyday pragmatic engagement. We analyze 50 plenary debates on gender equality and two plenary debates on the State of the Union, as well as 135 interviews with members of the European Parliament and political staff during two terms that witnessed a rise in anti-gender politics, 2014–2019 and 2019–2024. The conceptualization of feminist institutional responses to anti-gender politics in parliaments is important for identifying how institutional actors are countering the destructive potential of anti-gender politics and safeguarding parliaments as democratic sites for the advancement of gender equality policies.

Financial Crisis Management from the Perspective of national MPs: A Qualitative Assessment

Background: Financial crises have characterized economic history since the Roman Empire. Despite intensive political debate and extensive scientific research, parliaments in their role as legislators have failed to develop effective protection mechanisms. The example of the financial crisis of 2008 showed a major lack of political foresight with regard to the long-term consequences of decisions. Aim: The paper aims to provide insights into how financial politicians use their individual knowledge in policymaking and how knowledge management tools can help achieve financial market stability. Methods: Seven qualitative interviews with Members of national Parliaments in Europe were conducted in mid-2023. The evaluation was carried out using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results show that while the majority have the skills and understanding, the topic itself is underrepresented in everyday parliamentary life. The article concludes with a discussion of the need to introduce knowledge management systems in the parliamentary context. Practical relevance: This paper helps to uncover structural knowledge deficits among MPs. Knowledge management instruments could provide easy-to-implement support.

A few Thoughts on the Use of ChatGPT, GPT 3.5, GPT-4 and LLMs in Parliaments: Reflecting on the results of experimenting with LLMs in the parliamentarian context

Starting in November 2022 with the free provision of ChatGPT, large language models (LLM) are now publicly available. This has significantly increased the number of publications which scopes potential changes caused by the application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in various societal domains. The private use of AI and the economic integration of generative LLMs have increased significantly. However, for parliamentarians and parliamentary professionals, the technology often remains abstract, impacting everyday work only peripherally. Due to the special responsibility of parliaments, governments, and administrations as the organizational instances of society, and through the inherent legitimations by society itself, there is a necessity to examine the implications of the use of generative LLMs within these institutions and traditional structures as well as their influence on political system logic. The paper analyzes the responses that the generative LLMs GPT 3.5 and GPT 4 have provided via ChatGPT, based on the same input command (prompt) over different times. The responses help to assess how LLMs can be used in the parliamentary context, to reflect what dangers exist as well as to respond to the question on how a business model of an AI department in parliament might look like. Furthermore, it shall be explored whether there are fluctuations in the quality of the responses and how these should be evaluated against the backdrop of the need for accurate and precise workflows in parliamentary operations. Ultimately, the paper aims to provide an answer as to whether the application of ChatGPT together with the LLMs GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 could already deliver this necessary quality and consistency for the parliamentarian working environment today.

The Man with Jane: Another Look into Bellamy’s Kitchen

The Man with Jane: Another Look into Bellamy’s Kitchen William F. Long (bio) “The House” and “Bellamy’s,” two sketches by Boz published in the Evening Chronicle on 7 March and 11 April 1835 respectively, contain short, vivid descriptions of some dozen unnamed parliamentarians.1 Their subjects are likely to have been readily recognized by many contemporary readers.2 Seven “originals” were named in 1954 (Carlton) and the identity of a further three suggested more recently (Long). In the present paper, another of the subjects and the circumstances in 1835 which made him noteworthy are considered. The Man with Jane The subjects of Boz’s descriptions, in addition to members of parliament, included the staff of Bellamy’s kitchen, the refreshment-room which served both Houses of Parliament.3 Here, in the second of the sketches, he remarks [End Page 239] on Jane, the “Hebe” of the establishment, who is attending a man the identity of whom has not previously been established: Have you observed the delicate flirtation she has been carrying on with that young man, who displays a large quantity of hair under the back of his hat? He is a constant visitor here, possesses an enviable facility of dispatching brandy and water, and is nearly related to the noble leader of a “section” of the House. Observe the glee with which she listens to something he mutters somewhat unintelligibly in her ear (for his speech is rather thick from some cause or other), and how playfully she digs the handle of a fork into the arm with which he detains her; by way of reply. The man glimpsed flirting with Jane, then, is described by reference to a near relation, who is “the noble leader of a ‘section’ of the House.” This description deserves attention. Characteristics of the Near Relation First, Boz uses the term “the House” in the two sketches to signify specifically the House of Commons. Second, his use of “section” to denote a grouping within it is unusual. “Party,” “faction” or perhaps just “group,” depending on the context, are more common usages. Boz gives some emphasis to the name chosen, perhaps with a hint of irony, by placing it in inverted commas. Third, Boz refers to the head of this group as its “noble leader.” In the parliamentary context of the sketch, this descriptor is not a complimentary comment on the leader’s character. Instead it implies that he is a nobleman. The English nobility, then and now, comprises immediate families of peers. The latter are those who bear a title (duke, marquess, earl, viscount or baron) inherited from an immediate antecedent or bestowed directly by the monarch. Until recently all peers were eligible to sit in the House of Lords.4 In contrast, members of the nobility generally, then and now, have courtesy titles, or honorifics, and are eligible to be elected to sit in the House of Commons. With these points in mind, we may now consider the possible identity of the near relation of the young man glimpsed with Jane. [End Page 240] Groups and their Leaders in the Commons Readily discernible parliamentary groups in the mid-1830s comprised Whigs, Conservatives, Tories, Irish members, and Radicals. The Whigs and the Conservatives/Tories were led in the Commons by Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel respectively. The small but influential group of Irish members was led by Daniel O’Connell. The Radicals’ particularly vocal members, for example, Joseph Hume and William Cobbett, might arguably be said to have “led” opinion within this group of otherwise independently operating individuals. Of those mentioned, only Russell and perhaps Peel, as nobleman and near-nobleman respectively, qualify as possible candidates for the role of “near relation” of the man in Bellamy’s. Russell bore the courtesy title “Lord” by virtue of being the son of a peer (the sixth Duke of Bedford), and was formally referred to in the Commons as “the noble lord.” Peel had inherited the baronetcy of his father and was therefore a member of the “gentry,” a grouping at the lower border of the nobility. He was usually referred to as “the honourable baronet,” but also, very occasionally, as...

Parliamentary Dress

Parliamentary Dress

Issue Competition in Parliamentary Speeches? A Computer‐based Content Analysis of Legislative Debates in the Austrian Nationalrat

Parliamentary speeches are an important communication channel for political parties. A growing amount of literature suggests that parties use them to send policy signals in party competition. Although this perspective has become more popular in the literature, there is a lack of studies that focus on issue competition. I take a step towards closing this research gap by using a text‐as‐data approach to analyze parliamentary speeches in the Austrian Nationalrat. The data set consists of more than 56,700 speeches given by MPs between 2002 and 2019. I apply a semi‐supervised technique to classify the speeches at sentence level into 20 issue categories. The analysis shows that, despite the constraining parliamentary context (e.g., legislative agenda), parties put comparatively strong emphasis on their issue preferences. The magnitude of this effect, however, depends on a party's legislative agenda‐setting power. These findings confirm the presence and specific nature of issue competition in parliamentary speeches.

Introducing digitalisation to strengthen evaluation systems for democracy in African parliaments

ABSTRACT African parliaments are a unique institutional context for evidence use, and processes for digitalisation have specific implications for how evidence systems can contribute to democracy. While African parliaments have organisational features that make introducing technology challenging, they also hold significant promise for using digitalisation as a tool to strengthen democratic governance both within parliaments themselves, and also across the executive. This article shares experiences introducing a research management tool in two African parliaments, and reflects on what it means for the role evaluation plays in strengthening democracy. This is through looking at the technical components of digitalisation, the contextual components, and the political and values driven elements of the parliamentary context. This article describes these components, and reflects on their implications for the way democratic evaluation is understood in a context of African governance.

Unifying or Divisive Threats?

This paper contributes to the history of political terrorism through a data-driven study of the worry about the threat of terrorism and political extremism among the Swedish public and in the Parliament, 1986–2020. The aim is to explore the intersection of public opinion as expressed in national survey data and data on political action in the form of motions by Members of the Parliament (MPs), focusing on trends over time and the significance of political sympathies. Our study points to the impact of the attacks in the USA in 2001 and the wave of Islamist terror attacks from 2014 and onwards on both the public’s anxiety and the MP’s activity. It also shows the significance of political sympathies in this context with both citizens and MPs on the right being more worried about terrorism than those on the left, whereas the pattern is repeated in reverse when it comes to worry about political extremism. Through the investigation we highlight the benefits of combining parliamentary data and survey data as well as the importance of the parliamentary context, in exploring the relationship between public opinion and MPs activity on terrorism. An underlying argument is that the analysis of parliamentary data should be grounded in the context of the institutional and historical framework of the political system.

Talking to the Populist Radical Right: A Comparative Analysis of Parliamentary Debates

In many Western European states, right‐wing populist parties made it into national parliaments. This presents the established parties with the challenge of how to behave towards the new party. While the scholarly literature has focused more on the interaction with the populist radical right in the electoral arena, we know little about how it functions in an institutionally constrained arena such as parliament. This study asks in what way these structures affect the position taking and confrontation in speeches. Using different text‐as‐data approaches, I analyze parliamentary debates in four Western European parliaments after the entry of right‐wing populist parties. The results show that government‐opposition dynamics continue to structure parliamentary debates by and large, but right‐wing populist parties succeed in polarizing debates on immigration. They also become the center of attention in these debates. These results have important implications for the analysis of strategic party interaction in the parliamentary context.

Detecting Looming Vetoes: Getting the European Parliament’s Consent in Trade Agreements

Since the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament wields the power of consent over international (trade) agreements, enabling it to threaten a veto. Due to the extensive financial and reputational costs associated with a veto, the European Commission (hereinafter Commission) was expected to read these threats effectively. However, the Commission’s responses to such threats have varied greatly. Building on a fine-grained causal mechanism derived from information processing theory and an extensive process-tracing analysis of seven free trade agreements post-Lisbon, we explain why the Commission has responded differently to looming vetoes. Our analysis reveals that the variation in Commission responses derives from imperfections in its information-processing system, the ‘early-warning system,’ which had to be adapted to the new institutional equilibrium post-Lisbon. Because of this adaption process, factors exogenous to the parliamentary context (‘externalities’) as well as internal uncertainties (‘internalities’) add constant unpredictability to the Commission’s reading of the European Parliament.

I withdraw and apologise but…: Ghanaian parliamentary apologies, the issue of sincerity and acceptance

Employing a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach, this paper investigates apologies in a parliamentary context, using as data Hansards of the Parliament of Ghana (2005–2018). It identifies various apologetic expressions in the data, examines the display of (in)sincerity and apology acceptance as well as socio-pragmatic factors influencing the acceptance of the apologies. The apology terms identified include apology, (be) sorry, regret, forgive, pardon, excuse, did not mean to, (it is/was not my/I have no) intention to and the newly identified term withdraw. The paper shows that parliamentarians display sincerity by combining the following elements of sincerity in different ways: acknowledgement of the offence, show of remorse or regret, acceptance of responsibility for the offence, offer of repair, and expression of forbearance, without any ifs, buts or any manner of undoings, obfuscations, among others. It is found that sincerity can be compromised by giving a caution/warning/justification, giving a condition, throwing a challenge, showing superficiality and giving an explanation. The study also reveals that several contextual variables account for the acceptance, or otherwise, of an apology. It concludes that in the parliamentary context, sincerity is not a necessary condition for the acceptance of apologies.

From evidence to values-based decision making in African parliaments

Monitoring and Evaluation discourse in Africa has evolved to focus on building systems at a national level. While this systemic approach has many advantages, its implementation often runs up against the uncomfortable reality that governments have complex incentives to use evidence, and this evidence can equally contribute to decision making that is neither development-focused nor democratic if values are not part of the conversation. Much of the literature on public-sector reform focuses on evidence-based policy making. While relevant, it does not reflect on values, and this article will argue that acknowledging the central role values play in interpreting evidence is critical to effective national evaluation system building. To make this argument, this article will present and discuss vignettes from the parliaments of Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe that illustrate the pivotal role values have played in interpreting and acting on evidence in a parliamentary context. Finally, it makes a case for the discourse about evidence-based policy making to consider values-based policy making as an appropriate lens for parliaments to acknowledge and engage with the complex landscape of the politics of evidence.

The Social Role of Women within the Legal and Parliamentary Context in Ecuador

The main objective was to analyze gender equality in the context of its social, legal and parliamentary role in Ecuador. The methodology was systematically based on the mixed model of concurrent transformative design. Documentary and statistical data were collected from major sources. The information was analyzed using the triangulation method. The results were three categories. The constitutional regulation of gender equality. The legal regulation of gender equality in the parliamentary sphere. Statistical data on gender equality in the legal parliamentary sphere. In conclusion, it has been established that a more educated society is more inclusive and that eradicates female discrimination.

The Social Role of Women within the Legal and Parliamentary Context in Ecuador

The main objective was to analyse gender equality in the context of its social, legal and parliamentary role in Ecuador. The methodology was systematically based on the mixed model of concurrent transformative design. Documentary and statistical data were collected from major sources. The information was analysed using the triangulation method. The results were three categories. The constitutional regulation of gender equality. The legal regulation of gender equality in the parliamentary sphere. Statistical data on gender equality in the legal parliamentary sphere. In conclusion, it has been established that a more educated society is more inclusive and that erradicates female discrimination.

The Australian Parliament and press freedom in an international context

The article reports on a study using grounded theory methodology to track the contexts in which Australian parliamentarians used the expressions 'press freedom' and 'freedom of press' over the ten years from 1994 to 2004. It uses Parliamentry Hansard records to identify the speeches in which discussions of press freedom arose. Interestingly, the terms were used by members of the House of Representativies or Senate in just 78 speeches out of more than 180,000 over that decade. Those usages have been coded to develop a theory about the interface between press freedom and the parliament. This article reports just one aspect of the findings from the larger study—the way parliamentarians have contrasted the value of press freedom in Australia with press freedom in other countries. It is one step towards building a broader theory of press freedom in the Australian parliamentary context.

The use of actually in a non-native English parliamentary context: a corpus study

This paper explores the syntactic and pragmatic uses of actually as a discourse marker in Ghanaian parliamentary debates. Employing a corpus methodological approach, the paper uses a 1.9 million-word corpus of Ghanaian parliamentary data in order to examine the patterns of the use of actually by Ghanaian parliamentarians in their parliamentary debates. In terms of the syntactic position, actually occurs more frequently at the medial position than the initial position and rarely at the final position. Pragmatically, actually mainly functions as an emphasizer. Other functions include correction, contradiction, epistemic retreat, apology, appeal, contemplation, pragmatic softener, certainty, shifting focus and suggestion. These functions reflect the nature of parliamentary debates as a contest of opinions and stance taking, where parliamentarians take positions and argue strongly to convince their fellow MPs to support a certain line of policy action.

Getting the Story Right: A Constructivist Interpretation of Storytelling in the Context of UK Parliamentary Engagement

This article examines Parliament’s use of storytelling techniques as a means of representing itself to citizens, and representing citizens to themselves. It does so with reference to the ‘constructivist turn’ in representation literature—particularly its emphasis on co-constitutive meaning-making—which, as this article shows, is also applicable to studies of engagement and narrative. Storytelling constitutes a vital means of engagement, yet has hitherto received insufficient scholarly attention within a parliamentary context. This lacuna is all the more significant when considering the emotional and often informal means of participation that increasingly characterise the UK’s political landscape. In relating storytelling to parliamentary engagement (and emphasising the co-constitutive qualities of both), an innovative visual analogy (based on fractals) will illustrate the conductivity of storytelling to two pursuits: Parliament’s attempts to represent itself within the political sphere, and its claims to be relevant to citizens. Both of these pursuits represent key tenets of Parliament’s responsibility to engage, and to mediate between citizens and governance. Through the theoretical lens presented here, Parliament’s attempts to engage through storytelling will be examined according to the techniques used, and their likelihood of reaching an audience that, in constructivist terms, is created through this act of representation.

Effort, incentives, and culture in the Czech Senate

ABSTRACTThis paper uses the natural experiment of seat allocation in the first Czech Senate to assess the effects of incentives on legislative effort. Contrary to previous work using similar research designs, the incentive of longer terms has little effect on the effort levels of legislators. This may reflect the parliamentary context, the newness of the Czech Senate, or, most interestingly, political culture.