Parliament Research Articles

Historical Overview of Development’s Impact on Rural and Urban Governance in Iran

: The constitutional revolution in 1906 was the beginning of a new era for Iran. A national parliament was established for making laws that established modern institutions such as city and village councils and mayors over the decades. Urban governance was renewed and the land reforms in the 1960s transformed rural governance, changed landlord– peasant relations and reduced the traditional authority of village headman (kadkhodas) in village administration. The 1979 revolution introduced a new kind of local governance, Islamic councils for governing cities and villages. This article discusses the main changes and challenges of local governance in Iran by using theoretical concepts of dependent development. The changing pattern of authority and penetration of state bureaucracy through the creation of several rural and urban organizations before and after the Revolution of 1979 is discussed. The article also explains how the establishments of these rural and urban institutions have helped to increase the domination of the state officials within both cities and villages.

Investigating the ambitions of young women to run for national parliament: the case of Australia

ABSTRACT Like many liberal democracies, there is a gender gap in the Australian Parliament. While there has been growing momentum to increase the number of female parliamentarians in the national legislature, the Parliament of Australia continues to be a male dominated domain. This paper investigates the factors that contribute to maintaining the gender gap by focusing on the ambitions of young women to become a member of the national parliament. We find that the appeal of becoming a parliamentarian for young women is significantly curtailed by beliefs that the institution maintains stereotypical gender norms as well as a masculine, and misogynistic, culture. Furthermore, we find that young women believe they lack the skills and confidence required to occupy public office which further diminishes their political ambition.

Making Legislative Process Understandable: Survey of Parliaments’ Serious Games of European Countries

In addition to passing legislation, many parliaments in Europe and around the world engage in educational activities aimed at promoting democracy and explaining the legislative process. Increasingly, these educational activities take the form of serious games. But just how many European parliaments use games, and what do these games involve? This study is a survey of the use of serious games by European national parliaments’ visitor centres, based on a questionnaire and web page analysis. Out of the 43 countries surveyed, 25 were found to use some form of games. The study maps the game genres and activities the games contain, as well as the parliaments’ rationale for using them and intended target audience.

Democracy and fiscal-policy response to COVID-19

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the level of democracy and fiscal-policy response to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. We use a novel cross-country panel dataset of fiscal-policy responses with time variation. Our results suggest that more democratic countries adopted substantially larger fiscal-policy packages (in % GDP), and the gap regarding the size of packages between more democratic and less democratic countries widened over time. Our analysis of the components of fiscal policy shows that democracies, in particular, provide larger packages that benefit the broad public. Furthermore, our system-equations estimations suggest that the relation of democracy level with the fiscal-policy response is established through democracy’s relation with inclusive institutions, represented by the parliamentary system, and corruption.

Investigation of university students’ critical thinking in debate: Justification for the “AREL” argumentation process

This qualitative research investigated students’ critical thinking in a debate group at a university level. It involved six students who performed a debate that used the Asian Parliamentary System. Data on students’ critical thinking were collected by using field notes and video recording. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data focusing on the use of argument traits of the AREL model. The traits consist of Assertian, Reasoning, Evidence, and Link Back (AREL). Moreover, a self-evaluation questionnaire was distributed to triangulate the students’ critical thinking levels. It was found that students’ critical thinking level was mostly below average. Four out of six students did not meet the score which is the threshold level of a high-level debater. Most of their argument traits consist of Assertion (A), Reasoning (R), and Evidence (E), leaving Link back (L) traits untouched. Interestingly, this research revealed a new finding. Many of the students used a multi-layer structure of argumentation. In practice, they occasionally used Assertions with more than one Reasoning and more than one Evidence.
 Keywords: AREL, argumentation process, argument trait, critical thinking, speaking, debate

The Electoral System in Light of the Jordanian Election Law no. (4) of 2022 Analytical & Critical Study

The significance of this study stems from the importance of electoral systems and their role in producing elected councils based on partisan pluralism, for the possibility of transforming into parliamentary governments stemming from the party or party alliance that obtains the parliamentary majority. The study comes to answer the main problem, which is: To what extent was the legislator able in the new election law 4/2022 to establish a tight legal organization for the electoral system to form the Jordanian Parliament, whether in terms of forming local lists or the general list and the effectiveness of distributing seats to them. The study concluded that the new election law did not achieve the main objective which is strengthening partisan pluralism and activating its role in the electoral process, as it was characterized by legal uncertainty and shortcomings in some aspects of regulation. Therefore, the study recommended the need to reconsider the legal regulation related to the distribution of seats among the local electoral constituencies on the one hand, and the general electoral constituency in terms of increasing the seats for the general electoral district, on the other hand.

Constitutional History During the Parliamentary System of Government: Ris to Presidential Decree (1949-1959)

Constitutional History During the Parliamentary System of Government: Ris to Presidential Decree (1949-1959)

The Decline of Democracy and Parliaments in Eastern Central Europe: A Case Study on Poland

The parliamentary system in Eastern Central Europe has been known for its authoritarianism, with parliaments being subordinated to communist leadership and parties, as seen in Poland. The decline of democracy in Poland reached its peak when the conservative party was in power, controlling the legislative and judiciary in this former communist country. Corruption and social inequality threatened modern democracy, leading to protests and criticism from the people. The ruling party mainly focused on economic and political power in the name of citizens, leading to criticism even from the media. The study aims to examine the decline of democracy and parliaments in eastern central Europe in Poland. The study uses a case study and qualitative approach to identify the factors behind the decline of democracy in Poland. The main issues were the credibility of state institutions and the lack of media freedom, in addition to corruption. The political change in Poland and increasing populism led to the decline of democracy, which continued to receive criticism even from the media.

Beyond Institutional Adaptation: Legislative Europeanisation and Parliamentary Attention to the EU in the Hungarian Parliament

Abstract While studies of the formal adaptation of parliaments to the European Union (EU) have dominated legislative scholarship in the last two decades, there is a growing interest in the substantive impact of the EU on legislative production and parliamentary behaviour. We contribute to this research agenda by exploring the effects of Europeanisation on the national parliament of one democratically backsliding EU member state, Hungary. Comparing periods marked by Europhile and Eurosceptic parliamentary majorities between 2004 and 2018 shows that governmental attitudes towards the EU are not reflected in parliamentary law-making and that parliamentary attention is mainly influenced by the level of Europeanisation of the policy field. This shows that backsliding governments do not generally oppose greater integration and underscores the necessity to distinguish between rhetorical Euroscepticism and Eurosceptic legislative action.

A republican fiscal constitution for the EMU

ABSTRACT The democratic management of macroeconomic externalities between Members of the Economic and Monetary Union requires abandoning the legal entrenchment of fiscal rules as well as their technocratic administration. The fiscal constitution of the EMU can instead become an instrument that guarantees European citizens’ and peoples’ reciprocal non-domination. This republican goal can be attained once a core set of fiscal principles are agreed upon and later interpreted in a political way by the Council and the European Commission. To be non-dominating the interpretations of these executive bodies on the management of macroeconomic externalities must be subject to a ‘dual contestatory system’. Citizens should not only control, through their national parliaments, what their own governments decide, but also what a collective of governments decide at the EU level. This requires stepping up of the contestatory powers of the European Parliament. Finally, this kind of democratic control should be epistemically supported and facilitated by a network of national Independent Fiscal Institutions who should allow citizens and parliaments to monitor what executives decide both at the national and at the EU level.

THE EUROPEAN INTERPARLIAMENTARY SPACE CONFERENCE – THE WAY TO INFLUENCE THE SPACE LAW AND POLICIES IN POLAND

The article presents the European Interparliamentary Space Conference as an interesting and effective way to collaborate on space law. It shows the path that needs to be followed to join the European Interparliamentary Space Conference. The presentation of its activities is assessed in light of the space governance concept. The European Interparliamentary Space Conference affects the creation of law by national parliaments and the legal regulations of European institutions working for space. It also affects law-making by the European Parliament and the European Commission. The article assesses the role of the European Interparliamentary Space Conference as an actor in the European space arena. It evaluates the ability of the EISC to determine a common strategy for Europe’s space activity, the shape of its space policy, and the directions of the European space industry integration. The history of Poland in the EISC is presented, and the assessment of Polish activities in the forum is characterized. Conclusions underline that the EISC is a significant actor in the space sector in Europe. Moreover, Polish participation in the activities of the ESIC should be more visible, especially at the national level.

Do they feel like they don’t matter? The rural-urban divide in external political efficacy

Rural areas have often been labelled by the literature as ‘left-behind’ areas or ‘places that don’t matter’, implicitly suggesting that residents of these communities feel neglected by political elites. This article studies the rural-urban divide in external political efficacy, which reflects individuals’ beliefs about the responsiveness of political elites, while also examining if compositional and contextual factors can explain such a divide. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, the results reveal a significant rural-urban gap in external efficacy, which is partly explained by differences in the sociodemographic characteristics of rural and urban dwellers, but not by disparities in their evaluation of the provision of basic public services. Notably, this rural-urban gap in external efficacy is substantively smaller in those countries with higher levels of electoral malapportionment that lead to an overrepresentation of rural areas in national parliaments.

Do Parliamentary Roles Affect Lobbying Activities? Evidence from the Canadian House of Commons

ABSTRACT In parliamentary systems, private members (i.e. backbenchers) with formal titles and roles can affect the institutional system in which politicians, civil servants and interest groups are embedded. Packing legislative institutions with backbenchers who act as agents of the government but who are not in Cabinet puts certain Members of Parliament in a privileged position with the core executive. We hypothesize that influential positions in Canada’s House of Commons, notably a parliamentary secretary tasked with supporting a minister or a chair of a parliamentary committee, bring increased external pressure from interest group lobbyists. We test these assumptions with data on communications between MPs and interest group lobbyists gathered from the federal Registry of Lobbyists and open data lists found on the website of the Parliament of Canada. Our results show that a parliamentary secretary position or a seat on a standard committee exposes MPs to higher lobbying volumes.

The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe as a stage in deepening the integration of the European Union member states

The article generally analyses the prerequisites for the creation of the Constitution of the European Union. In particular, the factors contributing to its development were considered. Thus, it was found that following the results of the summit, at which a decision was made to develop a draft Constitution, the European Convention was formed, the creation of which provided for the completion of the institutional reform, the main purpose of which was to determine the future of Europe: the distribution of powers between the member states, the review of the EU treaties, the role of national parliaments, as well as the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In addition, the article summarizes the structure of the Constitution. The Treaty on the Creation of the Constitution of Europe, which was supposed to become the basis of the future Constitution, was also analysed. It was determined that the future Constitution consisted of a preamble, four parts, protocols, and annexes. The article also explored that the Treaty was signed on behalf of the states mainly by the plenipotentiaries of the state, among whom the vast majority were prime ministers or foreign ministers. In addition, it was determined that the process of ratification of the Treaty was thorny. It was analysed that the European Parliament voted to support the implementation of the Constitution. Most of the parliaments of the member states, in accordance with the treaty ratification procedure adopted in the state, ratified the Treaty at the level of voting in the state parliament. The main prerequisites that stood in the way of the adoption of the Constitution were also investigated the main states that decided to hold a referendum on the ratification of the Treaty were identified. In addition, it was determined the states in which the citizens voted against the adoption of the Constitution because of the referendum, as well as those states where the citizens spoke in favour. It was also analysed that after the results of the referendum in France and the Netherlands, the leaders of the European Union decided to take a break and created a working group that will develop the next steps regarding the adoption of the Constitution. The article also determined that based on the results of the activity, it was decided to create a new agreement based on the Agreement on the Creation of the Constitution.

Impeachment as Last Resort to Safeguard Democracy? Removing the Head of Government in Different Institutional Settings

Democracy would essentially fail if, despite an electoral defeat, the government refused to concede office. This possibility is a constant uncertainty that democracy has to deal with, which makes it fragile in terms of its survival. This was on full display after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including the resulting denials by then President Trump and his followers and their attempts to have the results overturned, with the dramatic conflict culminating in the storming of the Capitol. Trust, but also mistrust, is constitutive for democratic regimes: Trust makes democracies exist, and mistrust makes them survive. Recent studies have pointed out that institutionalized mistrust has long been ignored as relevant for democracies; however, there is little if any research attention given to the most pivotal tool in terms of institutionalized mistrust, namely the vote of no confidence or the early removal of the head of government from office. In parliamentary systems, parliament can remove the head of government for political reasons, whereas presidentialism lacks this option, although impeachment provides a way of removal on legal grounds. This article aims to prompt further reflection in comparative government on how these tools of institutionalized mistrust are defined in the context of different institutional settings and what potential risks they entail. Do the principles of trust and mistrust actually differ between the various governmental systems? Finally, does impeachment strengthen democratic principles, or is it pathological in a sense that it might even foster autocratization?

Referencing the Public by Populist and Non-populist Parties in the Slovene Parliament

The present moment raises many questions about the workings and resilience of parliamentary democracy in Western-type democracies, including the former socialist states of the East Central European region, where various forms of populism and illiberal democracy are taking shape. Among these, Slovenia is taken as a case study, since it is not only a former socialist state, but was also for a long time acknowledged as a post-socialist success story. Focusing on the central state institution in systems of parliamentary democracy, i.e. the parliament, and its members (MPs) this paper considers speech as performed during parliamentary sessions by MPs from populist and non-populist political parties between the years 1992 and 2018, the period of a fully democratic Slovene national parliament. It combines the methodological approaches of cultural history with corpus linguistics in order to map any possible differences in populist and non-populist discourse of MPs. Special attention is given to situations where MPs mentioned the public, thus testing the hypothesis that populist MPs engage more with the public as a part of their populist political style.

Issue Responsiveness in Canadian Politics: Are Parties Responsive to the Public Salience of Climate Change in the Question Period?

This paper explores how politicians respond to the public salience of policy issues when determining which topics to publicly address. Using new data and state-of-the-art methodology, our study provides a fresh perspective on this fundamental question. We focus on a multi-party parliamentary system, specifically the Canadian House of Commons, with a specific emphasis on the issue of climate change. To assess the attention given by political parties to various policy issues, we analyze transcripts from the Question Period spanning from April 2006 to June 2021. To gauge the public’s level of concern for these issues, we incorporate data obtained from Google Trends. Employing an instrumental variable estimation strategy, our study causally estimates the extent to which the public salience of climate change influences elite attention. Our findings reveal that the public salience of climate change significantly influences the attention given to this issue by parties, albeit with noticeable partisan variations. Moreover, our research highlights the effectiveness of the Question Period in compelling the government to address challenging or potentially embarrassing issues. Lastly, we uncover evidence suggesting that the Liberal Party of Canada successfully increased the public salience of climate change during its tenure in government.

The Role of Language Technologies in Digital Humanities (The Case of Parliamentary Debates)

The paper focuses on the use case of parliamentary debates as part of Digital Humanities. First, the ParlaMint project is outlined as a flagship initiative of CLARIN ERIC infrastructure. The project makes content from the national and regional parliaments visible, comparable and accessible for policy making and research. Then, the approaches are considered that have been applied in the creation of 31 corpora from national and regional parliaments. Last but not least, the utility of the multilingual resource is discussed.

Women's Labor Participation in Ghana and Effects on Human Development: A Focus on Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this paper is to examine the gender-rooted challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Ghana and to analyze the impacts that increasing women’s rights and entrepreneurship have had on the country’s economy. Several indicators (including labor force participation, women's seats in national parliaments, the Women Business and the Law index, primary completion rate, and the gender inequality index) of gender equality and the prevalence of women’s entrepreneurship are compared with economic and human development trends. Through statistical regressions, the paper’s findings show a positive correlation between greater income equality and women’s seats in national parliament, as well as with the human development index, and conclude that the best way to reduce gender inequality is to increase the number of women in positions of power, as well as improve the education and skill development for women.

신국제협정: 세 가지 패러다임에 관한 검토와 시사점

From the traditionalist position on international law, a new form of compact agreement, which cannot be classified as an international treaty in terms of academic framework, had long fueled much of contention in politics, international law, and constitutional law. A growing practice of compact agreement had been natural as corresponding with the global compression of international community and rising aspiration of peace regime on the international relations.
 The scholars of international law believe that, regardless of whether the President of the United States is an internationalist or an isolationist, the enactment of international law in the 21st century will be based on more pragmatic rather than formal criteria. It is still true whether or not he is willing to accept or escape the international obligations so that we can more realistically share the powers conferred by the Constitution.
 On the other hand, a constitutional controversy on somewhat mushy yet sophisticated issues on the compact agreements began with the Laurence Tribe's acrimonious criticism in 1990. He argues that a procedure between Congress and the executive branch for the Clinton administration's accession to the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) is unconstitutional. His criticism pointed out that the NAFTA is unconstitutional since it is contrary to the text and structure of the Constitution. On the other hand, scholars of political science believe that, while a politics is termed as the distribution of values, the new form of compact agreement serves connecting the domestic and international politics as a living organism and must be affirmed from the standpoint of parliamentary politics. The political scientists argue on the necessity and inevitability of a new form of international agreement as pursuant to the nature of political process on informal procedures and parliamentary practices.
 In respect of the theoretical controversy, the paper is devoted to survey what the new form of compact agreement is, what types we can identify and explore the theoretical contest among the disciplines. As the dealings of paper attempt to touch on the core of scholarly assertions as fundamental and philosophical, the endeavor could inculcate the mind of international lawyers within and outside the government by providing a better framework to understand the specific real-world issues. The perception and rationale for the new form of international agreement should differ varying with their academic disciplines from which their thought stems from. The paper ends with implications within the grand scale of jurisprudence.