Parliamentary Stages Research Articles

Choosing not to lead: Monetary incentives and political selection in local parliamentary systems

Using a rich database covering all local politicians in Italian municipalities, we implement a regression-discontinuity analysis to evaluate the causal effect of monetary incentives on political selection in local parliamentary systems. We find that higher expected wages lead to the selection of more educated council members and executives, but do not result into better educated mayors. Low-wage councils tend to elect mayors with almost two years more schooling than the median councillor, but this difference vanishes in high-wage councils. We rationalize this finding in a model where better educated councillors shy away from better-paid but full-time positions (such as mayor) and prefer less-paid but part-time positions (executives) that allow them to devote more time to work while in office. An analysis by politicians’ occupation and retirement status supports this explanation. Our findings thus highlight that the effects of monetary incentives are not invariant across different institutional settings, especially when the election systems include a parliamentary stage.

Problematyka większości głosów wymaganej dla zmiany Konstytucji RP z 1997 roku

SOME PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MAJORITY OF VOTES REQUIRED FOR AMENDING THE 1997 CONSTITUTION OF POLAND The aim of this paper is to supplement the findings made by the doctrine of constitutional law regarding the requirements of the majority of votes for amending the 1997 Constitution of Poland at the parliamentary stage of that procedure. The following issues will be analysed in particular: the significance of constitutional amendment rules in a democratic system of government and their impact on its rigidity and durability; the role of the quorum as a factor contributing to the majority of votes’ requirements and some political dilemmas associated with that matter; the reasons and consequences of adopting different levels of the majority of votes for amending the Constitution in the Sejm and the Senate and their relation to the form of the relationships between those chambers. Regulations regarding amending the 1997 Constitution of Poland will be presented against a background of contemporary constitutions of European states. The important interpretative context will be constituted by the issues of axiology of democracy, parliamentary bicameralism and legitimization of power.

Perpetual scrutiny? Mutual control among coalition political parties in the executive and parliamentary phases of law-making

There is an ongoing debate on how political parties that form coalition governments keep tabs on each other during the drafting and negotiation of new bills. Our article complements existing studies focused on the parliamentary stage of law-making by enriching current knowledge with an analysis of the executive phase, where bills may be significantly changed before they are submitted to the legislature. Contrary to theoretical expectations, results based on unique data from the Czech Republic reveal that bills which are heavily altered during the executive phase are subsequently significantly changed in the parliament. Additional interaction models indicate the effect is stronger for bills that are highly significant for the proposing minister and are a greater distance from any coalition compromise. Our findings open the question of why the coalition parties leave the resolution of some controversial issues to the parliamentary phase: the outstanding conflict may be genuine, or the coalition MPs may just be playing out a prearranged and staged battle that enables the coalition partners to show their distinctive qualities to the voters.

In the cradle of laws: resolving coalition controversies in the executive phase of law-making

AbstractLaw-making in most parliamentary democracies is dominated by the executive. Yet so far, all research has focused on the parliamentary stage of law-making. Studies suggest that the changes to bills submitted by coalition governments are the result of coalition policies dealing with the agency loss caused by ministerial drift. This is puzzling because it is already easier and more effective for coalition parties to attempt to change the bills in the executive phase than in the parliamentary one. The article aims to close the knowledge gap, and it quantitatively explores the factors that facilitate changes during the understudied executive phase on case study of the Czech Republic. Analysis reveals that government bills are altered more during the executive phase than the parliamentary phase. While we find no significant impact caused by the distance to coalition compromise, the saliency of a bill for coalition partners has a negative influence on the ratio of changes.

Eutanasia: de delito a derecho

La proposición de ley reguladora de la Eutanasia actualmente en tramitación parlamentaria no sólo despenaliza la conducta típica, sino que convierte lo que era un crimen en un derecho. El artículo aborda este tránsito desde el punto de vista de la filosofía del derecho, extrayendo algunas conclusiones básicas sobre los problemas que plantea convertir la decisión de morir de delito en conducta jurídicamente exigible.

Legal aspects of COVID-19 pandemic management for community nurses.

Legal aspects of COVID-19 pandemic management for community nurses.

Rola polskiego parlamentu w systemie organów wdrażających wyroki Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka

The study presents selected issues related to the role of the national parliament in the implementation and execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It presents the specificity of the national law-making process as a system of ad hoc legislation, which to a small extent is a response to international obligations in the field of human rights.The study also attempts to examine the impact of the case law of the ECHR on the national legal system by analyzing the subsequent stages of the legislative process. It emphasizes the role of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, whose task is to ensure that states do not overlook — by their actions or omissions — the effects of judgments. The study attempts to assess the degree of sensitisation and the increase of awareness regarding the significance of the standards of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Convention) in the national institutions and executive and legislative authorities that actively cooperate with each other. The implementation of the guidelines of correct legislation in the context of human rights is an activity of entities involved in the law-making process which, taking into account the standards of national and international law, shape in a specific manner the situation of individuals as well as of all entities. Parliaments can hold the executive authorities accountable for the execution of obligations by means of various instruments, and thus many legal issues that were the subject of the judgments of the ECHR had significant impact on the legislative process and the undertaking of respective legislative actions towards bringing Polish legislation closer to the standards of the Convention. The Sejm (the Polish Lower House) and the Senate bear enormous responsibility for the quality of the adopted law; at the parliamentary stage the role of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland becomes less leading, but not excluded. This is what determines the unique role of the dialogue between the executive and legislative authorities, which should finalize the vision of the legal regulations closer to human rights in a constructive manner.

Ivory trade: Policy and law change

Against a backdrop of consistent NGO pressure, countered by an unrelenting and increasingly transnational organised crime-framed poaching effort, the Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs moved to enact legislation which will significantly curtail what remains of the market for ivory products in the UK. The Ivory Bill, at the time of writing going through its parliamentary stages, will sidestep the majority of the current exemptions, premised on the antiquity of a worked item, to the usual prohibition on the trade of raw or worked ivory which owes its existence to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 1973 (CITES) and the Treaty’s domestic implementing measures. The accelerated illegal killing of charismatic species such as elephants has prompted legal responses at international and local levels in both range and destination-market states. Laws targeting both the supply and demand sides of the trade have been undermined by the trade in antique ivory: a shadow, parallel market of imitation antiques has existed for some time to launder poached ivory through the exemptions to the CITES system. This short article will introduce the mechanics of the Ivory Bill, set in the context of the drivers which have prompted it, and will evaluate its potential contribution to curtailing this destructive trade.

Suffrage extension, social identity, and redistribution: the case of the Second Reform Act

The most widely accepted interpretation of the Second Reform Act is the redistributivist hypothesis. This interpretation, however, is at odds with the absence of redistributive measures in the years after the 1867 Reform Act. Drawing on the social identity hypothesis, we argue that the British elite was convinced that skilled workers were not demanding the right to vote in order to obtain redistributive measures, and therefore they had no misgivings about granting this right to this group of workers. To confirm this, we use an event study to show that the various parliamentary stages of the Second Reform Act had no effect on Consol yield.

Amending the constitution

How easy ought it to be to enact constitutional amendment? In the absence of constitutionally prescribed procedures, fundamental reforms in the UK can often appear hurried, under-consultative and controlled by transient political majorities. In the recent referendum on Scottish independence, the NO campaign's promise of additional powers to Holyrood in the face of a possible ‘Yes’ vote appears to fit this pattern (even if, for reasons of political sensitivity, it was not driven directly by members of the Coalition government). A recent sample of concluded constitutional reforms, including the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, have drawn criticism from within Westminster on the grounds of defective process. Specific options to improve pre-parliamentary and parliamentary stages of constitutional reform have been proposed with a view to attaining principled procedures of constitutional reform removed from executive control that signal attachment to process values such as wide and effective consultation, deliberation outside and inside Parliament, and informed scrutiny. The foregoing prescriptions for remedying defective processes may, however, be said in the ultimate analysis to retain a normative preference for a more formal, elite-managed vision of constitutional change that is premised upon a limited conception of the citizens' ‘informed consent’. In any case, in purely descriptive terms, top-down managed change does not capture the totality of patterns of past constitutional reform in the UK. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, radical grassroots campaigns for the extension of the franchise resulted ultimately in universal adult suffrage. More recently, the Scotland Act 1998 can be seen as the culmination of a civic society–led, deliberative engagement with ordinary voters over decades that offered an alternative vision of ‘bottom-up’ constitutional reform to that seen in more formal, elite-led processes of constitutional reform. The inclusive and participatory nature of the campaign for Scottish devolution marked out a radically different model of constitutional reform to that which has typified Westminster-style amendment and which is still largely directed by political elites. In such circumstances as prevail currently at Westminster, it is difficult to give much credence to claims that the outcomes of constitutional reform processes enjoy the ‘informed consent’ of the people.

“Enemies at the Gate:” The West German Greens and Their Arrival at the Bundestag—Between Old Ideals and New Challenges

The West German Green Party's 1983 entrance into the Bundestag marked a major break, both in the history of this young political force and the parliamentary system of the Bonn Republic. The Greens had been founded in opposition to the guiding principles of the West German postwar consensus and conceived of themselves as an “anti-parliamentary party.” Although they had gained parliamentary experience in some regional chambers, their entrance onto the national parliamentary stage juxtaposed old ideals and new challenges—for the Greens themselves as well as for German political culture. Taking this singular historic moment as a starting point, this article summarizes the formation of the Greens in the context of the changing political and ideological landscape of the 1970s. It also contrasts the party's formation with the transformations in terms of program and personnel that it undertook during the 1980s. The focus lies less on the specific activities of the green parliamentary group than on the broader developments in green politics and thinking.

Liberal parliamentarianism in Mexico. Notes for reflection: the parliamentary representation of the State of Puebla in the Mexican National Congresses, 1833–56

After achieving independence from the Spanish colonial dominion, a process of political development began in Mexico, tending towards setting up the nation-state while creating and consolidating its own institutions following a liberal political model. This resulted in the beginning of the parliamentarization of Mexican political life and the changing of the ruling classes – with certain filtering – opening up the way to a new political/parliamentary elite linked to diverse liberal options. This article sets out to propose some initial thoughts and debate around one of the most overlooked aspects of the first liberalism in Mexico: the political protagonists of the Mexican parliamentary stages that witnessed the consolidation process of the liberal state model that was representative in the country. To do so, as one of the main research methodologies in terms of the parliamentary participants, basic biographical profiles and prosopographical analysis are set out in this article. In this case, partial results are presented of a specific case study, from which partial conclusions and comparative guidelines are presented. This case focuses on parliamentary representation of the State of Puebla in the Mexican National Congresses, during the period 1833–56.

Unfitness to Plead: A Change in the Law - At Last!

The need to amend the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 has been recognised since the mid 1970s when the Butler Report on Mentally Abnormal Offenders put forward proposals to amend the law. However, successive Governments have failed to give priority to this issue. Following further consideration by the Home Office and pressure from the Law Society and other organisations, a Private Members' Bill was introduced to stop miscarriages of justice to mentally vulnerable people and to end unnecessary detention in psychiatric hospitals. The Bill passed unopposed through all its Parliamentary stages and received Royal Assent on Thursday, 27th June 1991. Given the comments by Home Office ministers during the Parliamentary debates, it is hoped that there will only be a short delay before the new Act is implemented. This paper describes why the New Act was required and how it will benefit people with learning disabilities who are accused of a criminal offence.

The role of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

The birth of a longed-for child brings joy and happiness. Many thousands more people have been able to enjoy that experience in recent years thanks to artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs). A little over 30 years ago, no child had ever been born using in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Today, over 40,000 IVF cycles are carried out each year in the UK and more than 11,000 children are born,1 with over 3 million children born worldwide after ART. With these developments came ethical dilemmas brought to light by the changing expectations of patients and by possibilities unthought-of by previous generations. In response to the new ethical and social dilemmas that followed the science of assisted reproduction, the UK Government established the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Since 1991, the HFEA has been placed firmly at the heart of developments in the field of assisted reproduction and embryo research. The regulator’s task is to find a balance between the needs of science and medicine and the concerns of patients and the public. With new legislation2 to renew the legal framework for IVF and embryo research regulation approaching the final parliamentary stages, the role of the HFEA and the ethically sensitive issues it deals with are being widely discussed.

Veto Players and Welfare State Change: What Delays Social Entitlement Bills?

AbstractIn contrast to the study of outcomes such as social spending, systematic comparative analysis of political processes underlying welfare state change is scarce. This study deals with the influence of government parties and second chambers as veto players in social entitlement legislation. It asks three questions regarding the duration and outcome of the legislative process at the parliamentary stage. Does the number of government parties or the ideological distance between them affect the passage of bills? Under which circumstances do second chambers have an influence? Does the ideological position of the leftmost governing party affect the speed of passage of bills in policy areas where there is pressure for retrenchment? The hypotheses are tested using an original dataset on social entitlement bills initiated in Belgium, Germany and the UK between 1987/88 and 2002/03. Event history analysis at the level of individual bills yields the following results: proposals initiated from among the government parties on the floor are delayed by a higher number of parties in government, by greater ideological distance between them, if the second chamber is controlled by the opposition and its approval is mandatory, if the left veto player is more rightwing and if the bills deal with expansionary or mixed policies. Cabinet bills, in contrast, are not affected by any of these factors. The results point to a number of further research questions and show that quantitative studies in comparative welfare state research can go beyond testing simple hypotheses with macro-level outcome data.

UK elected representatives and their weblogs: first impressions

PurposeTo examine the weblogs written by members of UK legislatures and to determine whether such weblogs address commonly cited criticisms of MPs' web sites and serve to bridge the gap between representative and constituent.Design/methodology/approachExamination of the literature on MPs' web sites to draw up a list of common criticisms. Construction of evaluation criteria to analyse the blogs in terms of content, currency, design, interactivity and evidence of personality both as a snapshot and over a longer period.FindingsThat weblogs are, on the whole, kept up to date and show promising levels of activity. Blogs enable constituents to see with what their MPs have been involved (on both the local and the Parliamentary stages) and to see what areas of policy particularly interest their MP. Personality of the MPs is apparent on most of the blogs, which are less party‐oriented than many MPs' web sites. Although the gap between representatives and constituents may have been bridged to an extent, blogging is still largely a top‐down form of communication – even though people do submit relevant and pertinent comments to the blogs, proper two‐way debate is rarely seen and comments are not always acknowledged or answered.Research limitations/implicationsBased on a small number of blogs covering the UK only.Practical implicationsProvides simple evaluation criteria that could be applied to blogs in other areas.Originality/valueProvides a useful first structured analysis of weblogs written by elected representatives, on which further work can be undertaken once the sample size has increased and existing blogs are more established.

Examining the new market abuse regime

The Financial Services and Markets Act will introduce a new framework for dealing with cases of market abuse. In broad terms the framework will cover market manipulation, the misuse of information not generally available to the market and the dissemination of misleading information. The Government made a number of changes to the proposed regime during the Bill's parliamentary stages with the outcome that what is now Part VIII of the act looks quite different from the original Part VII published in the July 1998 Bill. That, however, begs the question of how different the current version of Part VIII is to its predecessor in substance. This paper addresses the following broad areas in order to summarise where we now stand: — the original intentions behind the introduction of a new regime for dealing with cases of market abuse, complementary to the criminal regime — the concerns which the original approach raised in the minds of market practitioners and their advisers — an assessment of the changes that have been made to Part VIII (formerly Part VII) of the Bill as originally published, and — some concluding thoughts.

Ratifying Maastricht

When signing the new Treaty on European Union in Maastricht, the governmental leaders of the 12 member countries of the European Communities had accomplished a significant step towards economic and political union. Before taking effect the draft proposal had, however, to be ratified according to the procedures of the 12 member countries. We discuss and analyze these different ratification procedures by focusing on the parliamentary stage. Applying the two-level game concept of international cooperation we show that a two-dimensional representation of the Maastricht draft treaty sufficiently explains the domestic events that occurred during the ratification process. Besides extending the Maastricht negotiation win-set linking economic and political objectives, the two-dimensionality particularly increased the 12 governments' likelihood to survive the ratification constraints in their domestic arena. Using spatial solution concepts from social choice theory as tools, we attempt to illustrate with empirical data how `big' the domestic win-sets of the 12 were in the parliamentary ratification.

The Health Authorities Bill

Behind the Health Authorities Bill (about to complete its parliamentary stages) seethes a mass of unresolved tensions. On the face of it, all the bill will do is streamline the upper echelons of management in the NHS. It follows a major review of the NHS in 1993,1 which recommended that to refine the internal market the NHS should replace the old regional tier with eight new regional offices of the central NHS Executive and should enable the formation of local commissioning agencies from merged district health authorities and family health services authorities.2 Yet these small readjustments in bureaucracy will highlight at least three substantial areas of contention that are already pulling the NHS in different directions. Firstly, what will be the balance of power between the central NHS headquarters and the front line? Secondly, who will hold sway in the local purchasing of health care—the health commissions or the fundholding general practitioners—and will it really be led as intended by primary care? Thirdly, how will the decisions be made—by the market, by political forces, or by scientific evidence? These three sets of interrelated opposing tensions threaten to undermine what would otherwise be the next logical step in improving how the service is organised. Concerns about the bill have also centred on more detailed matters such as who will hold junior doctors' contracts as they rotate among trusts, how postgraduate and continuing medical education will be coordinated, whether regional directors …

Comparing Legislatures: The Policy Role of Backbenchers in Ontario and Nova Scotia

Cet article vérifie l'hypothèse selon laquelle les attitudes et les comportements des députés dans un régime parlementaire peuvent se rattacher partiellement à des différences de cadre institutionnel. D'une manière plus précise nous cherchons à déterminer si les membres d'un Parlement de métier, complexe, spécialisé et qui possède un système de commissions autonome ont une façon différente d'aborder les questions politiques que les membres d'un Parlement ayant les caractéristiques opposées.Nous avons interviewé une centaine de parlementaires de l'Ontario et de la Nouvelle-Ecosse. Nous avons identifié trois attitudes, celle de « l'initiateur, » celle du « critique » et celle de « l'aide » (« facilitator ») et nous avons classé chaque parlementaire enfonction de ces attitudes. Nous comparons les deux Assemblées législatives et nous proposons des hypothèses concernant l'influence du milieu sur les attitudes des parlementaires. Nous tenons compte également deux variables indépendantes: l'éducation et l'affiliation partisane.Notre conclusion montre l'importance des règlements de la chambre, des ressources et des traditions pour expliquer les attitudes des parlementaires. L'attitude d' « initiateur » est aussipopulaire dans l'un et l'autre cadre, mais les deux autres attitudes semblent être marquées par des différences de cadre institutionnel. Chaque Parlement possède un mode de division propre au sein de ses membres et celui-ci s' explique par des différences de cadre institutionnel.