Parliamentary Procedure Research Articles

Durability through discord – debating parliamentary procedure in Europe around the turn of the twentieth century

ABSTRACT During recent decades, the role and legitimacy of national parliaments have become increasingly topical and disputed. Parliaments seem to be on the constant defensive against criticism and challenges coming from multiple directions. New populist parties have entered the debating scene, framing parliaments as elite playgrounds and using them as stages for polarized politics. Not only mirrors of social unrest, debates in national assemblies may also be considered catalysts of social upheaval. Both stable and young democracies have been backsliding, and elected autocrats have concentrated power to small elites, harnessing public institutions for their power politics. At the same time, parliamentary democracy appears slow, short-sighted, inefficient and incapable of resolving the great dilemmas of our time. Democratic innovators are calling for more direct, deliberative and participatory forms to support, or even replace traditional parliamentary decision-making and representative democracy. 1 1 For example, D. van Reybrouck, Against Elections: The Case for Democracy, translated from Dutch by L. Waters (London, 2016); H. Landemore, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century (Princeton NJ, 2020). Accused of being ‘all talk, no action’, ‘political theater’ and arenas for ‘empty words’, ‘idle talk’ and ‘useless debate’, parliaments and their practices that long seemed self-evident, are now debated, abused, put aside or even neglected.

Parliamentary procedure in the Finnish Parliamentary Reform of 1906. A safeguard of democracy or an obstacle to democratization?

ABSTRACT This article explores the debates and innovations in parliamentary procedure in the Finnish Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. It focuses on the radical parliamentary and suffrage reform of 1905-06, when Finland’s outdated Diet of four Estates was replaced by a unicameral parliament elected through universal male and female suffrage. Until then, Finland had been a latecomer in parliamentary development, with reformists eager to study and apply European experiences, models, and concepts. These European influences inspired Finnish actors to pursue procedural innovations while balancing the risks and benefits of the dramatic reform. While many parliaments were struggling with limited time and considered imposing restrictions on the right to speak, Finnish reformists chose a different path, embracing the traditional ideals of careful, thorough, and multivoiced deliberation. This approach became heavily politicized and was particularly challenged by socialist newcomers, leading to an open struggle between competing concepts of democracy and parliament.

‘Who called me a coward?’ Courtesy in the Belgian House of Representatives (1888–1910)

ABSTRACT On the increasingly heterogeneous yet still all-male debating scene of the Belgian House of Representatives around the turn of the twentieth century, language was not merely a practical tool for getting a point across or putting a topic on the agenda. The use of French as the standard debating language, along with specific parliamentary speech modes, which initially seemed tacitly agreed upon in the Belgian Chamber, gradually became highly symbolical instruments in negotiations about ‘proper’ representation and parliamentary conduct. This article investigates what courtesy meant, exactly, for the different Belgian députés around that time. How did their views on representation, dignity, and parliamentary courtesy change after the integration of Socialist and monolingual Dutch-speaking deputies into the not only French-inspired but also initially francophone Belgian assembly? How did these newcomers negotiate the parliamentary procedures in an attempt to mould them according to the changed practices of the House? Via a case-study of meta-debates on courtesy following the early use of Dutch in the Chamber between 1888 and 1910, this article sheds light on some important Belgian parliamentary tensions of that time concerning the deputies’ legitimacy claims. In their struggle to combine legitimacy towards their peers with legitimacy towards their electorate, the late-nineteenth-century newcomers in parliament (Socialists as well as Dutch-speaking Daensists) used similar strategies, making sure that the conventional orator(s) of their respective parties almost immediately counterbalanced or contextualized the language and actions of the more rebellious member(s).

Parliamentary debate and the construction of the national characteristics of Swedish parliamentarism

ABSTRACT This article examines how the characteristics of parliamentary debate were discussed in Sweden between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War, covering the period of parliamentary democratization and the interwar crisis of democracy. Focusing on the comments on the nature of parliamentary rebates in the printed press, as well as the ways in which MPs comment on debate while they speak in parliament, this article shows that there is a remarkable continuity in the ways in which Swedish parliamentary debate was viewed, as a compromising negotiation in parliamentary committees was elevated to a national characteristic of Swedish parliamentary culture both by the conservative critics of parliamentary democracy and the social democratic and liberal defenders of democracy. What was in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth centuries characteristically a conservative argument in favour of safeguarding the quality and independence of the working procedures of parliament against the consequences of democratization was in the 1930s turned into an argument against the threats that political extremism and totalitarian ideas posed to parliamentary democracy. The study shows that the Swedish style of parliamentary debate was continuously contrasted with the pro et contra style of debate in the British Parliament, which was deemed unsuitable to the Swedish constitutional tradition even if it sometimes gained support as an ideal type. The main examples of debates on parliamentary procedures discussed in the study deal with the question of open voting and the rights of the Speaker to regulate debates.

Rules of consultation. Parliamentary procedure in the Netherlands since 1795

ABSTRACT The Dutch Parliament claims to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest parliament still in function today, with roots tracing back to the ‘States-General’ of 17 provinces in the Low Countries that assembled for the first time in 1464. Historiography also tends to stress the remarkable continuity and stability of the Dutch Parliament, with rules, practices and traditions handed over from one generation to another – seemingly irrespective of regime changes. Continuity indeed is a significant aspect of Dutch parliamentary culture. This article will show that this is a result of an ongoing historical process of adaptation and re-negotiation, and by no means has it been self-evident. Confronted with internal and external challenges of the established (working) order, the Dutch Parliament throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries sought to reconciliate ‘the old’ with ‘new’ ideas on how to put parliamentarism, representation, and deliberative democracy into daily practice. In fact, this has been at the heart of every discussion on parliamentary procedure.

A classical study on parliamentary procedure. Conceptions of parliament in Josef Redlich’s Recht und Technik des Englischen Parlamentarismus (1905)

ABSTRACT In this article I analyse the intellectual contribution of Josef Redlich’s Recht und Technik des Englischen Parlamentarismus, a classical study on the Westminster parliamentary procedure from 1905. Redlich presents the origins of the procedural literature and the revision of British parliamentary procedure in the second half of the nineteenth century, the extended post-reform parliamentary agenda as well as the Irish members’ obstruction campaign. He emphasizes parliament’s measures for dealing with the scarce time threatening to paralyze its activities. His perspective is that of guaranteeing an efficient parliamentary government in the age of democratizing representation and extending legislation, which was realized at the cost of thorough debates deliberating pro et contra. With later scholarship, we could emphasize the continuous presence of deliberative procedure and rhetoric at Westminster.

Parliamentary procedures and democratization in Italy during the liberal age (1861–1922)

ABSTRACT This article revolves around two focal subjects: parliamentary procedures and democratization. On the one hand it explores the use of the term ‘democratization’ in the Italian parliamentary debate during the Liberal Age (1861–1922). On the other hand, it tries to clarify how the general trend of democratization, in particular the extensions of suffrage and the birth of mass parties, affected parliamentary practices in Italy.

Debate and democratization in the Polish Parliament, 1919–1990

ABSTRACT Parliamentary development in Poland had been interrupted by long periods of loss of national sovereignty. Hence, while Poland boasts a parliamentary tradition going back to the fifteenth century, Polish parliamentarism has been influenced by both accommodation and resistance to a variety of externally imposed frameworks or revolutionary projects, making the relationship between debate, democratization, and parliamentary procedure neither simple nor linear. Practices that may have been undemocratic in one political context played a democratizing role in another context. Periods of limited national or political sovereignty (including the nineteenth-century partitions or the Communist period between 1945 and 1989) led to the rise of quasi-parliamentary or extra-parliamentary bodies and practices that circumvented the limitations imposed on parliament and that became part of the Polish parliamentary tradition. The example of the Polish Parliament shows that specific parliamentary practices may have either detrimental or democratizing effects on debate, depending on the broader political context and the specific exigencies of the political moment and the actual political meaning of particular procedures, rules, and behaviours (including their ‘democratizing’ thrust) emerges as a function of their deployment in the specific context of particular political moments and projects.

NOTE AND DOCUMENT

AbstractThis article revisits the year book report of Pilkington's Case (1455), a much‐used source of information about Lancastrian parliamentary procedure. It shows that our understanding of this case can be considerably improved by comparing the report with the original private act and plea roll record. Most importantly of all, the article demonstrates that Pilkington's Case concerned a dispute over the crown's ability to amend acts by altering the royal assenting formula.

Prospects and challenges for parliamentarism in the conditions of the development of digital constitutionalism

The purpose of the article is to carry out a multi-faceted analysis of the dynamics of the development of parliamentarism and digital constitutionalism, to identify possible challenges and threats, as well as prospects for parliaments and parliamentary activity in the conditions of the spread of modern digital (electronic) technologies. Approaches to understanding and defining the phenomena of «parliamentarism», «constitutionalism», «digital constitutionalism», some of their modifications and features are highlighted, their multifaceted nature, transformation in the conditions of modern progressive digital development, electronic democracy is emphasized. Crisis and conflict events have largely become challenges for parliaments and parliamentary activity, as well as digitalization and digitization processes and tools. It is important that parliamentary institutions of various levels (national, supranational, inter-parliamentary associations, their auxiliary bodies and services) contribute to the development and regulation of these processes, using advanced and effective digital technologies tested in practice. The «Digital Compass» for the EU Digital Decade (2030), the concept of digital sovereignty, the adopted charters of digital rights (Catalan, Nice), the Law on Digital Markets, the Law on Digital Services, the Law on Artificial Intelligence, the Declaration on European Digital Rights and Principles should be singled out. (2022), «World e-Parliament Report» of the IPU, the concept of e-democracy of the European Parliament, the resolution on e-democracy of the PACE, recommendations on open government and electronic participation of citizens OECD. Thanks to this, new forms and tools for the implementation of existing human rights are introduced, as well as new digital rights are constituted (to access the Internet, to identity in the digital environment, to protection in the digital environment, non-discrimination, etc.). In the same way, the forms and methods of activity of parliaments are being modernized (expansion of platforms for online broadcasts of plenary and committee meetings, electronic (remote) voting, improvement of interactive websites with access to draft laws and other documents, and systems of electronic petitions and consultations with voters, electronic participation of citizens and public organizations in the legislative process). However, the development of digital parliamentarism and digital democracy is accompanied by numerous challenges (digital inequality, low digital literacy of members of parliaments and parliamentary services, cyber threats, material and financial costs etc.). This requires a thorough study of the issues raised, improvement of digital culture, improvement of parliamentary and non-parliamentary procedures, along with further development of technological infrastructure, cyber security protection of the components of digital parliamentarism.

Measures to Mitigate Covid-19 in the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) of Malaysia: Implications to Parliamentary Privileges

The surge of Covid-19 cases worldwide has had its impact on how every institution discharges its functions, including the legislature. Governments, under the pretext of containing the spread of the virus, have paralysed parliament and incapacitated it from performing its duties, particularly its oversight function. This article explores the extent to which the standard operating procedures (SOP) for Covid-19 in the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) of Malaysia should be permitted under the Federal Constitution of Malaysia on parliamentary procedure. Despite attempts to restrict parliament in many countries, legislatures such as in Canada, Australia and Brazil have demonstrated their ability to adapt and move progressively to minimise disruptions that the pandemic might cause toparliament. Taken together, legislatures’ responses in times of Covid-19 offer an interesting impression of parliamentary privileges while also raise an important question of the role of parliament in representing people and checking the government actions.

Self-mediatisation and the format of Swedish parliamentary speeches: Speech length and political slogans, 1920–2019

Abstract In this article, we investigate traces of a news media logic in the Swedish parliamentary speeches from 1920 to 2019. Drawing on theories of mediatisation, we examine two aspects: the length of the speeches and repeated political slogans. Our analysis is based on a complete corpus of parliamentary records with annotated speeches. Speech length was measured based on word count, and the identification of slogans was based on repeated seven-word segments, filtered to exclude generic phrases. While it is difficult to draw any definitive conclusions about the influence of an external media logic, the speech length has dropped by 50 per cent since 1920. This change relates to new parliamentary procedures, and from the 1980s, with the explicit goal to attract the news media. Short and snappy political slogans have increased significantly since the 1990s. This development reflects previous research stating that sound bites are getting shorter.

Gavel to Ground: Examining the Effectiveness and Efficacy of Project Karunungan in Enhancing Local Governance and Its Future Direction

In the context of local governance, careful implementation of parliamentary procedures during meetings is of great concern. In 2019, Project Karunungan, a training workshop program, was born from cooperation between the Political Science Department of Mindanao State University and the Local Government Unit of General Santos City, Philippines. The initiative's primary goal is to educate barangay officials about Robert's Rules of Order principles. This paper is qualitative and quantitative research, drawing arguments from interviews and surveys. The correct parliamentary process significantly improves local governance by providing a formal framework for decision-making and guaranteeing fairness, openness, and accountability. This paper advances the significance of Project Karunungan to new heights as a continuous program to produce better leaders.

‘This is a sovereign assembly’: popular sovereignty, parliament and the people in the Irish Free State

ABSTRACT The stability of Irish democracy since 1922 is often a cause for contentment with lines of succession drawn from ‘Grattan’s parliament’, O’Connell’s popular movement, and the achievements of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) at Westminster through to Dáil Éireann. The IPP certainly disrupted the Commons, yet Irish politics was also shaped by the ‘mother of parliaments’ – MPs mastered parliamentary procedure and home rule legislation drew on British and colonial parliamentary models. By 1918, the party’s machine and parliamentary behaviour were rejected as much as British rule – but as Michael Laffan suggested, Sinn Féin triumphed by beating the home rulers at their own game. However, the 1922 constitution gave generous expression to the sovereignty of the people, and for judicial review. But, within short succession, facility for popular initiative was overridden. Ironically, the Irish Free State would never be amended by popular will or judicial review but by parliamentary majority in 25 amendments as the people only voted to adopt it in 1922 and replace it in 1937. In practice then, it was closer to a vision of Dicey's supremacy of parliament dogma that prevailed, so much so, that Seán Lemass acrimoniously proclaimed in 1934: ‘this is a sovereign assembly’.

What norms do team-based leadership development event teams use to create a culture of success?

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify norms and culture of teams who qualified for competition in team-based Leadership Development Events (LDEs) at the 2020 [State] State Virtual LDEs. We extrapolated differences in team norms and culture from the Agricultural Issues Forum, Parliamentary Procedure, and Conduct of Chapter Meetings (CCM) from interviews with the advisors of the teams. We conducted interviews via phone, voice recorded, and transcribed them for analysis. We open coded interviews in a meaning making process. From the interview data, we determined teams whose norms were student driven, Agricultural Issues Forum teams, had more of a team development experience, had more buy-in and experienced more elements of cooperation. Teams with advisor-driven norms, Parliamentary Procedure and CCM teams, were more focused on the competition and winning; in addition, individual accountability was a common theme. Accountability, cooperation, dedication, focus, and resilience emerged as themes in team culture. This information can be used to assist FFA chapter advisors in preparing their students and structuring team development plans to assist students in developing team-related employability skills.

Sobre la enseñanza del pasado democrático en España. Alumnado, polarización y redes sociales

The aim of this text is to reflect on the teaching of democratic memory in Spain, focusing on history students, and encourage a debate on how to work on this important subject in the classroom to build and strengthen democracy. To achieve this, three different aspects are dealt with. Firstly, the analysis of the new legislation on democratic memory shows the opposing views on the republican period and the Civil War that have been observed in the parliamentary procedure of this law. Secondly, it connects the process of political polarisation observed in Spain, as well as the relevance of these contradictory visions of the past in it, with the students’ previous conceptions in order to understand their reception in the teaching of history. This polarised context, as it is proposed, should be considered as an influential element in young people’s attitudes towards history. Thirdly, based on the importance of social networks today, these reflections are complemented by the study on the interpretation of the Paracuellos shootings in Madrid in the autumn of 1936, which appeared on the social network Twitter/X. The aim is to show what kind of discourses on the Spanish history young people may be receiving.

The Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law Making Process in Greece: Another One Law Drafting Committee or Something More?

Abstract This article provides information regarding the assessment of bills, before the parliamentary procedure, in Greece, throughout the years. It focuses on the differences between the former ‘Central Legislative Committee’ and the current ‘Committee for Quality Evaluation of the Law Making Process’ and presents the responsibilities of the latter, as well as the improvements that have been achieved since its operation. Then an analysis of the quality of the legislation, in general, takes place and the relevant problems are highlighted.

Parliamentary inquiries as minority rights: are legal transplants possible?

ABSTRACT Committees of inquiry, in related literature, are often called as ‘sharpest sword’ of the opposition. However, this sharpness is highly dependent on how much rights the opposition is effectively provided by the fine details of the procedural rules, and whether these rights are justiciable. According to the German model, the inquiry must be launched if a quarter of the MPs require it, and the opposition enjoys minority rights also during the inquiry. Many countries implemented the first, but not the second element in their parliamentary procedures (Hungary, Kosovo, Albania, Lithuania), which led to ineffective inquiries. The only positive example for a successful transplant of the mandatory minority initiative for launching an inquiry is the neighbouring country, Austria. In most of the other countries, the majority is more effective in conducting inquiries, and, lacking judicial remedies, the opposition cannot put its right to inquiry in practice effectively. It seems that the mandatory minority initiative hardly works properly outside its original home country, Germany, and the only successful transplant country, Austria. Another evidence that legal transplants cannot survive if the legal environment and culture is not fertile and developed enough.

Zwyczaj jako kreator normy prawnej na przykładzie regulaminu Sejmu

Parliamentary custom has been present in modern parliament since its inception. The functioning of the British or German parliament shows that customs can co-create or supplement parliamentary procedure. In the Polish parliament, customs also regulate a number of proceedings. The subject of this article is the custom found in the practice of the lower house of the Polish parliament – the Sejm. Examples of customs that have been transformed into norms of the Sejm’s rules of procedure despite their long practice are indicated and discussed. However, the analysis of these examples does not give a clear answer to the question of the reasons for turning custom into law. It shows the inconsistency and discretionary nature of the changes. It is also in vain to find purposefulness and consistency in the creation of norms on the basis of custom.

Developing the improved Community Health Fund inTanzania: was it a fair process?

Tanzania developed its 2016-26 health financing strategy to address existing inequities and inefficiencies in its health financing architecture. The strategy suggested the introduction of mandatory national health insurance, which requires long-term legal, interministerial and parliamentary procedures. In 2017/18, improved Community Health Fund (iCHF) was introduced to make short-term improvements in coverage and financial risk protection for the informal sector. Improvements involved purchaser-provider split, portability of services, uniformity in premium and risk pooling at the regional level. Using qualitative methods and drawing on the policy analysis triangle framework (context, content, actors and process) and criteria for procedural fairness, we examined the decision-making process around iCHF and the extent to which it met the criteria for a fair process. Data collection involved a document review and key informant interviews (n = 12). The iCHF reform was exempt from following the mandatory legislative procedures, including processes for involving the public, for policy reforms in Tanzania. The Ministry of Health, leading the process, formed a technical taskforce to review evidence, draw lessons from pilots and develop plans for implementing iCHF. The taskforce included representatives from ministries, civil society organizations and CHF implementing partners with experience in running iCHF pilots. However, beneficiaries and providers were not included in these processes. iCHF was largely informed by the evidence from pilots and literature, but the evidence to reduce administrative cost by changing the oversight role to the National Health Insurance Fund was not taken into account. Moreover, the iCHF process lacked transparency beyond its key stakeholders. The iCHF reform provided a partial solution to fragmentation in the health financing system in Tanzania by expanding the pool from the district to regional level. However, its decision-making process underscores the significance of giving greater consideration to procedural fairness in reforms guided by technical institutions, which can enhance responsiveness, legitimacy and implementation.