Parliament Research Articles

The Changing Discourses of EU Enlargement: A Longitudinal Analysis of National Parliamentary Debates

AbstractDomestic support for EU enlargement across existing member states is understood to have shifted significantly since 2004. But, how? Here, we explore how enlargement has been framed discursively in the national parliaments of eight member states. Our dataset comprises over 18,000 statements from 1989 to 2019. We link our exploration to alternative explanations for change: IR‐based shifts in how applicant states are perceived and, from comparative politics, the ‘politicisation’ of EU membership in domestic party systems. We analyse changes in salience, sentiment and thematic foci. Our results confirm shifts in the perceptions of individual applicant states over time and an increased concern with issues of ‘identity’ in relation to enlargement. We find that whilst salience has declined, sentiment has turned negative and explore the distinctive discourses of ‘challenger parties’ in this regard.

Indonesia’s new Criminal Code: indigenising and democratising Indonesian criminal law?

ABSTRACT In late 2022, Indonesia’s national parliament enacted a new Criminal Code, which replaced a 1918 Code introduced during Dutch colonial rule. Some provisions – such as those covering the death penalty, corporate liability and criminal settlements – have been relatively well received by reformists. But many other provisions have been widely and strongly criticised. While the Code claims to democratise, decolonise and consolidate Indonesian criminal law, this article demonstrates that it has achieved the opposite. It undermines democracy by seriously hampering free speech, including legitimate criticism of government officeholders and institutions. It reinstates offences imposed during the Dutch colonial era that were used against Indonesian nationalists pushing for independence, including Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno. And, far from bringing together Indonesia’s disparate regulatory sources of criminal law, the Code adds another layer of law to existing sui generis criminal statutes, which largely remain in effect. Worse, the new Code imposes conservative religious-based values allowing the state to interfere in citizens’ private sexual lives. The Code also appears to encourage subnational lawmakers to give effect to localised customary norms of criminal law, which might reflect even more conservative values and result in the prohibition of various expressions of sexuality, including homosexuality.

Klaus Vogel Lecture 2022: Who Should Be in the Driver’s Seat in Developing International Tax Norms – Civil Servants or National Parliaments?

In his Klaus Vogel Lecture for 2022, Professor Bertil Wiman examines the question of “Who Should Be in the Driver’s Seat in Developing International Tax Norms – Civil Servants or National Parliaments?”, in so doing providing his answer to this important issue.

Comments on Professor Bertil Wiman’s Lecture “Who Should Be in the Driver’s Seat in Developing International Tax Norms – Civil Servants or National Parliaments?”

Edwin Visser comments on Professor Bertil Wiman’s Klaus Vogel Lecture of 9 December 2022, hosted by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law (WU), Vienna, the title of which was “Who Should Be in the Driver’s Seat in Developing International Tax Norms – Civil Servants or National Parliaments?”

Considerations on the mobilization of the Constitutional Guardian concept in the thinking of Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco (1960-1967)

Based on the method of analysis of the morphology of political ideologies by Michael Freeden and the conceptual or philosophical history of politics by Pierre Rosanvallon, as well as the theoretical framework related to Brazilian political-constitutional thought, especially liberalism, the article seeks to outline some considerations about the use of the concept of guardian of the Constitution, also defined as moderating power or fourth power, in the thinking of Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco in the unfolding of the Brazilian political crisis that culminated in the military coup of 1964. The work specifically intends to analyze the Melo Franco’s writings and speeches in the temporal arc that covers the period in which he was a senator of the Republic (1960-1967), with the objective of understanding not only the handling of the concept, but his conception regarding three elements of the country, all related to conceptual mobilization: 1) the role of the Federal Supreme Court, in the present and past, to arbitrate political conflicts; 2) the legitimacy of the military to intervene in times of crisis; and 3) the solution of the parliamentary system, defended by him since the 1950s. The article aims, therefore, to explore these three aspects in a contextual and tensioned way to understand the use of the concept.

Governmental System Discussions Ahead of the 2023 Elections: Why the Nation Alliance’s Proposal for Semi-Presidentialism is not a Viable Option

Ahead of the 2023 elections, one of the top items on Türkiye’s political agenda will relate to the different systems of government that various parties have proposed. The country overhauled its political system in 2017, replacing the parliamentary system with a Turkish-style presidential system. The differences between Türkiye’s system of government with the U.S. presidential system, along with other aspects of the Turkish system, have been the subject of public debate for a long time. Whereas the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) advocate the preservation of the current system, they have not completely ruled out potential revisions based on five years of experience. Türkiye’s opposition parties, in turn, unveiled a series of proposed constitutional amendments to which they collectively refer as the ‘augmented’ parliamentary system. This article analyzes the systems of government proposed by two major alliances, which will compete in the 2023 elections and the debates on their proposals.

Analysis of the impact of the election system on the efficiency and performance of the Iraqi Parliament in representation of the people and decision-making

Iraq adopted the parliamentary system, in state administration and governance, in 2005, if some negatives appeared that marred the system, in its applications, most notably that some of the constitutional tasks of parliament were not performed, including oversight of the executive authority, or there were some forms in the performance of parliament, especially in legislation And the budget, and the research dealt with the reasons behind the poor performance of parliament, as well as developing an evaluation of the parliamentary experience in Iraq, and finally the research presented mechanisms to reform the parliamentary system.

Legislative ex-post impact assessments in Europe: applying a new assessment framework for comparative institutional analysis on Post-Legislative Scrutiny by national parliaments in Europe

ABSTRACT This article analyses parliamentary practices in conducting Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) in Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom against four categories of parliamentary approach in PLS. Parliaments as passive scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures, capacity and procedures for PLS and no parliamentary PLS reports. Parliaments as informal scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures and procedures but are stronger in terms of own parliamentary outputs on PLS. Parliaments as formal scrutinisers have more developed structures and procedures on PLS but remain weak in terms of outputs and follow up. Parliaments as independent scrutinisers are strong in terms of structures and procedures as well as in terms of reports and follow up. The case-studies indicate that the federal parliament of Germany is a passive scrutiniser in PLS, the parliament of Italy an informal scrutiniser, the parliaments of Sweden and France formal scrutinisers, and the UK Westminster and Swiss parliaments independent scrutinisers.

Politics of COVID-19 vaccination in Japan: how governing incumbents’ representation affected regional rollout variation

BackgroundDespite initial delay, Japan’s COVID-19 vaccination accelerated remarkably from May to September 2021 under the leadership of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. His “campaign” for vaccination, however, did not yield uniform results nationwide.MethodsTo highlight political determinants for the regional variation, we employ ordinary least squares regression analyses to investigate how the share/presence of incumbent politicians belonging to the governing parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party, influenced the varying progress of rollouts across prefectures as well as across cities/towns/villages. The data on the vaccination rate for all 47 prefectures was obtained from Government Chief Information Officer (CIO)’s Portal, Japan (GCPJ) approximately one month prior to the anticipated general election, the national election for the more important House of Representatives of Japan’s bicameral parliament (Diet). The data for lower administrative units, though its availability was limited to only three prefectures, was obtained from the respective governments of Kagawa and Ehime and from a local newspaper in Gifu.ResultsThe findings reveal that at both prefectural and sub-prefectural administrative levels, the share/presence of the governing parties’ representation in the national parliament had a positive and statistically significant effect on the region’s vaccination progress, after controlling for the local proliferation of COVID-19 and demographic characteristics.ConclusionOur findings contribute insights into the understudied area of the contemporary COVID-19 health environment, namely how the political dynamics of democracy affect the pattern of vaccine dissemination in Japan.Trial registration: Not applicable.

All Politics Is Local: Studying Women’s Representation in Local Politics in Authoritarian Regimes

The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in women’s presence in local politics. According to the newly published United Nations (UN) Women in Local Government data set, women constitute 36% of local deliberative bodies worldwide compared to merely 25% in national parliaments.1Much of this increase is the result of gender quotas: the Gender Quotas Database (International IDEA 2022) shows that as of 2021, 75 countries had some form of gender quota on the local level, 24 of which were authoritarian regimes. Yet, extant work on gender politics in authoritarian regimes tends to focus on the national level, given the highly centralized decision-making processes in such contexts. We contend that the study of women’s engagement and representation in local politics can help scholars better understand not only gender and politics, but also authoritarian politics more generally.

European Research Infrastructure Consortium: The Organizational and Legal Form of Research Infrastructures in the European Union

Problems setting. The scientific work is devoted to the legal form of research infrastructures in the European Union the European Research Infrastructure Consortium. The ERIC Regulation facilitates the quicker establishment of European Research Infrastructures by saving time in avoiding the repetition of negotiations, project by project, to analyse and discuss the best legal form for such international research organisations, with related advantages and disadvantages and the time saved in avoiding discussions in each national parliament related to the approval of a needed international agreement in case the ERIC Regulation would not have existed. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The issue of the functioning of research infrastructures in the EU in the form of ERIC has been relevant in European scientific literature for the last decade. In particular, it is worth noting studies by Maria Moskovko, Arnljotur Astvaldsson and Olof Hallonsten, Carlo Rizzutto. In Ukraine, some issues of legal regulation and information support of research infrastructures were studied by Golovashchenko O.S., Lyubchych A.M., Mamayev I.O. There are no thorough studies of the legal status of research infrastructures in the national jurisprudence, which is due to the novelty of this topic in the law of Ukraine. Target of the research is to provide an overview of the dominant legal form of functioning of research infrastructures in the European Union, the history of its implementation, legal regulation, features of activity. Article’s main body. The European Research Infrastructure Consortium is a legal entity established by a decision of the European Commission. It has legal personality and full legal capacity recognized in all EU Member States. The internal structure of the European Research Infrastructures Consortium is defined in the statute by its founding countries. The ERIC legal framework can be used for new or existing research infrastructures, locally located or distributed research infrastructures. The European Research Infrastructures Consortium has been granted the status of an international organization within the EU legal system, but it is not an international organization according to the international law, as the decision to establish ERIC is taken by the European Commission. Much attention is paid to the EU legal framework that allowed the introduction of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium – Council Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 on the Community legal framework for the European Research Infrastructures Consortium. The article specifies the law that applies to the European Research Infrastructures Consortium. The activities of the European Research Infrastructures Consortium are governed by EU law, additionally by the national law of the Member State where it’s located, and the statute, internal documents of ERIC. The legislation of the host state is to be applied in resolving issues related to the implementation of the statutory tasks of ERIC. Conclusions and prospects for development. The implementation of the legal framework of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium has resulted in removing legislative obstacles that hindered the development of cooperation of EU Member States with partners from other countries in the field of science. It has also led to the establishment a common European legal framework for scientific activities and thus has resulted in the development of the European Research Area. Despite the fact that more than ten years have passed since the implementation of the legal regulation of the functioning of research infrastructures in the form of ERIC, it is still in its infancy and questions arise in the process of its application. However, the rapid establishment of research infrastructures in the form of ERIC shows that it is effective for the development of research infrastructures in Europe and the establishment of the European Research Area.

Comparative Law on the Authority of the House of Representatives (Indonesia) with the National Parliament (Timor Leste)

Introduction: Based on the history of the formation of the state constitutions of Timor Leste and the state of Indonesia, it is interesting to conduct special research on a comparison of the legal powers contained in the constitution of the DPR (Indonesia) and the National Parliament (Timor Leste).Purposes of the Research: The purpose of this study is to explain the legal comparison of the powers granted by the Constitution, in this case the legal comparison of the powers of the House of Representatives (Indonesia) and the National Parliament (Timor Leste).Methods of the Research: This research uses normative research methods and comparative law research methods.Results of the Research: The similarity between the people's representative assembly (Indonesia) and the national parliament (Timor Leste) is that they both have the authority to formulate laws, as well as the similarity of legislative functions, budgetary functions, and oversight functions. The difference lies in the right to elect a general high councilor. In the Indonesian constitution, there is no general ministry high council election. The People's Representative Council does not have the authority to elect and appoint ministers, this is the President's authority as a perrogative right. Meanwhile in Timor Leste, the National Parliament elects the high council of general ministries.

The politics of regional integration: Domestic support for the enlargement of Mercosur in South America

While there has been scholarly attention to the politics of the third wave of regionalism in South America, this typically focuses on the performance of the Executive Branch rather than the domestic constraints. This article innovatively compares the behaviour of Mercosurian parliaments to understand their role in regional integration. It contributes to Foreign Policy Analysis, by drawing on Qualitative Comparative Analysis to systematically identify the configurations of conditions for rapid approval of enlargement treaties and investigate the impact of national parliaments. Nine cases are analysed related to the episodes of enlargement of Mercosur to empirically test the political conditions to achieve fast approval of treaties. The key finding is that domestic support (channelled in national parliaments) is important to confirm and conduct international projects – and specifically regional integration. This has implications for understanding the possibilities for how future accessions to Mercosur and other regional organisations will take place.

An election too far: Why do MPs leave politics before an election?

Why do members of parliament retire? In most parliamentary systems, a substantial number of MPs decide, before every election, not to run again. Though the decision to leave politics is essentially personal, a broader look at a large sample of MPs can reveal the existence of structural factors such as an uneven playing field or other sources of discrimination that could explain why certain individuals stay while others leave. A survey of the current literature indicates that the empirical work on this topic is almost exclusively focused on the US Congress. There is thus a need to conduct more research in other contexts to generate a more general explanation of why MPs leave politics on their own terms. The current literature suggests that the decision to leave could be explained by a complex combination of variables that are personal, partisan, and contextual. The purpose of this article is to better understand why sitting MPs decide not to run for re-election in parliamentary systems, focusing on three Westminster systems: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand since 1945. Various factors play a role, but our results suggest that as time passes, parliamentarians simply become less prone to seeking reelection.

The impact of the electoral system on political representation in the Iraqi parliament after 2005

In 2005, Iraq tended to adopt a political system that recognizes the procedures of "democracy" in forming the political system, and what was founded for it is the establishment of a parliamentary system, meaning the formation of a parliament that recognizes it as the representative of the sovereign, and that the sovereign on the ground is represented by the people, and through the representatives of the people the Choose who to rule. And if the method of forming the parliamentary system and the performance of the parliament is traced and compared to what was applied in Iraq, it is noted that there is a significant shortcoming of the electoral system in terms of political representation within the Iraqi parliament from 2005 to 2021, and its indicator could be the outputs of Iraqi political action on the ground. As a result of the weakness or absence of Parliament from performing its duties properly.

Factors Affecting the Functioning and Effectiveness of Electoral Systems in Iraq

The legitimacy of the authority in its exercise of its authority over the governed in democratic systems is linked through the election of these rulers with free and fair elections organized through an electoral system. effective representation in Parliament. In Iraq, which adopted the parliamentary system after 2005, the electoral systems were affected by a number of factors, by several electoral processes, which had a significant impact on the weakness and instability of the electoral system, as well as the diversity of the electoral system between the closed-list system, the "proportional representation system", and the development into The "open lists system", as a result of societal developments imposed by the stage, as the Iraqi legislator switched from the proportional representation system with the lists system to the system of individual nomination and medium-numbered constituencies, which we will address in the body of the research.

Institutional constraints on the executive, investment, and elections

AbstractIn recent years, a variety of countries worldwide have experienced an increase in executive power. Long‐standing concerns about this concentration include reduced property rights protection. Particularly for developing democracies, scholars theorize that a lack of institutional constraints on the executive may impede long‐term investment. Analyzing this question empirically has proven difficult, however, because economic activity can affect political institutions and behavior. This article, which analyzes four decades of data from 57 developing democracies, addresses the identification challenges by leveraging elections as a source of exogenous turnover and by accounting for the potential endogeneity of executive institutions. Consistent with the argument that institutional constraints reassure investors, the results suggest that as constraints on the executive increase, investment is less affected by prospective electoral turnover. Moreover, the results are stronger for presidential and semi‐presidential systems with fixed elections, where the chief executive's term cannot be ended early by elections or the legislature, than for parliamentary systems.

Who is donating to political parties in Queensland, Australia? An analysis of political donations from the food industry.

Australia's dominant food system encourages the overconsumption of foods detrimental for human and planetary health. Despite this, Australia has limited policies to reduce the burden of disease and protect the environment. Political donations from the food industry may contribute to policy inertia on this issue. We aimed to explore the extent of political donations made by the food industry in Queensland and investigate the timing of public health nutrition policies in relation to these donations. We collected publicly declared political donations data in Queensland, Australia, as it has the most transparent donation records. Policy data were sourced from the Australian National and Queensland State Parliaments, and consultations from the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation. Queensland, Australia. Not applicable. The Liberal National Party (LNP) received 68 % of all donations, with most immediately preceding the 2017 and 2020 state elections. The Australian Labor Party, despite forming government for the time period under study, received only 17 % of total donations. Most donations were given by the meat industry, followed by the sugar industry. Few policies exist to protect and improve human and planetary health, with limited associations with political donations for most industries except sugar. Industry preference for the LNP, particularly as most donations coincided with election periods, may be due to the party's emphasis on minimal state involvement in economic and social affairs. The relationship between industry donations and policies is not clear, partly due to the limited number of policies implemented overall.

Role of Parliament and Governance in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects

Purpose: This paper aims to critically evaluate the role of parliament in ensuring democratic governance as well as good governance in Bangladesh. The basic three functions of a parliament are a) law-making; b) representation; and c) oversight. Thus, parliament plays a crucial role in the development, people participation, rule of law, ensuring accountability and transparency, making laws and policies that promote good governance. Though Bangladesh has started its journey as a parliamentary form of government and past 48 years of its independence amid some(16) years of military intervention, however, the parliament of Bangladesh is not still effective to ensure the core elements of democratic or good governance by its three basic functions. Besides, the parliament of Bangladesh has been facing several problems and challenges to ensure its viability and effectiveness. The paper is a case-oriented qualitative study and based on secondary sources of materials.
 Methodology: The study adopted desktop literature Method
 Findings: The finding of this study is that a democratically elected parliament is the true voice of the people and responsible to the people which serves as the main platform of democratic governance. Besides, the quality of elections is crucial for a truly democratic parliament because parliaments can hardly fulfill their roles, specifically the role of representation, if elections are defective and controversial.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study concluded that parliament is should establish its functions through modernization by use of the latest technologies including ICT.

SPAIN: AT THE START OF THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN – 2023

The article analyzes the domestic political and economic results of 2022 in Spain on the eve of the start of the campaign for elections to local and autonomous authorities, as well as to the national parliament of the country. The stabilization of the socio-economic situation became possible in the context of unprecedented financial assistance from the European Union, as well as thanks to the active policy of social interventionism of the center-left government of Spain. Despite the relative internal political stability against the background of negative processes in the leading EU countries, there is no guarantee of maintaining positive dynamics in the economy and social sphere due to the country’s excessive dependence on the economic conjuncture of the European Union. The situation is aggravated by the persistence of the general crisis of the Spanish political system, which has developed because of the compromises of the post-Franco democratic transit period. Against the background of a complex and contradictory situation with the alignment of domestic political forces, the leading Spanish parties have actually come to a consensus in the field of foreign policy based on unconditional loyalty to the common line of the West. This position of the country’s leading parties contradicts the ideas about the national interests of Spain, formed by a significant part of the electorate, both left and right wing. Taking into account the real domestic political and economic situation, as well as due to the weak influence of the foreign policy factor on the Spanish electorate, the author concludes that following the results of the 2023 election campaign in Spain, no political party in the country will be able to form a stable parliamentary majority. Thus, the situation of increasing domestic political instability seems to be real, which could open the way to national politics for new forces capable of reorienting the country’s foreign policy in accordance with the sentiments of a significant part of Spanish voters.