Provincial Legislative Assemblies Research Articles

A Comprehensive Dataset of Four Provincial Legislative Assembly Members

Abstract This research note reports on a new dataset about legislators in four Canadian provinces since the establishment of their colonial assemblies in the eighteenth century. Over 7,000 legislators from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are included, with consolidated information drawn from multiple sources about parliamentarians’ years of birth and death, religion, electoral performance, kinship, and several other biographical indicators. We also illustrate the utility of such data with the help of a few descriptive examples drawn from the four provinces. We believe this consolidated dataset offers several opportunities for future research on representation, legislative activities and party politics.

Disputas intra-elite na construção do estado imperial

Este artigo analisa a organização das armas e a fiscalidade da província do Maranhão, realizada pela elite política local. Isso será feito a partir de duas instituições: a Assembleia Legislativa Provincial e a Presidência da Província. Farei uma descrição e análise desses temas fundamentais que estavam sob a responsabilidade dos deputados provinciais num estado em construção; em concomitância, observarei a atuação dos presidentes da província em relação aos projetos aprovados (ou não) na Assembleia Provincial, e como exerceram suas prerrogativas legais (como o veto).

O ato adicional de 1834 e a reorganização administrativa do ensino primário norte-rio-grandense

As normas jurídico-constitucionais consistem-se enquanto um campo fértil de investigação disponível à realização de pesquisas educacionais. O presente estudo tem por finalidade apresentar as medidas administrativas tomadas pela Assembleia Legislativa Provincial para a organização do sistema de ensino primário norte-rio-grandense, após a promulgação do Ato Adicional de 1834. Para composição das informações aqui registradas lançamos mão da pesquisa bibliográfica, sendo necessária para análise e reflexão a respeito dos acontecimentos educacionais em sua trajetória histórica. Além da pesquisa documental, utilizando como fontes para o estudo duas indispensáveis produções: a “Coleção Documentos da Educação Brasileira” em que estão catalogados e organizados 46 documentos de caráter oficial que regulamentaram a Instrução Pública na Província do Rio Grande do Norte; o livro “Um século de Ensino Primário” do historiador Nestor dos Santos Lima publicado em 1927 para análise dos benefícios causados pela Lei Geral de 15 de outubro de 1827, como arcabouço essencial para percepção das transformações educacionais da Província do Rio Grande do Norte. Com o levantamento bibliográfico e de fontes, percebemos que no tocante a legislação houve uma incessante tentativa de organização do ensino na referida província. As primeiras impressões que tivemos destacam que a Assembleia Legislativa norte-rio-grandense mostrou-se atuante durante o período de descentralização vivido pela educação imperial, demonstrando cuidado na organização administrativa e sistemática do ensino.

Alberta’s Great Experiment in Senatorial Democracy

ABSTRACTIn 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the unelected nature of the Senate is an inherent feature of Canadian parliamentary democracy and is a central pillar of the constitution. Members of the Upper House are appointed by the Governor General, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister. The decision taken by the Prime Minister is not subject to review by Parliament or the provincial legislative assemblies. Patronage appointments have given the Senate a reputation as a dumping ground for political friends and party insiders. In 1989, the province of Alberta enacted the Senatorial Selection Act, arguing that it would serve as a stepping stone for substantive reform to the Senate. The province has held four elections in which the people of the province have chosen senators-in-waiting. This article argues that the Court’s opinion in Reference re Senate Reform undermines the foundation upon which the provincial statute rests.

Members and Constituency Roles in the Canadian Federal System

Members of Canada's federal House of Commons are given substantial resources for constituency business, most of which is ombudsman-type service conducted by local offices. MPs consistently rate this work as their most important activity. Members of provincial legislative assemblies also are provided with resources for constituency service work. The article reports on high levels of commitment to constituency work also at the provincial level. Regardless of party stripe, constituency offices at both levels normally co-operate to assist citizens with problems even if they are from other constituencies. The article stresses the relatively non-partisan nature of constituency work given the lack of a strong relationship between service and seat marginality at either federal or provincial levels, and the relative disconnectedness of the party systems between federal and provincial levels.

“Our Irish copper-farthen dean”: Swift's Drapier's letters, the “forging” of a modernist Anglo-Irish literature, and the Atlantic world of paper credit

Situating its analysis in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Anglophone Atlantic world of print, this essay explores literature associated with experiments with paper currency in Massachusetts, Barbados, South Carolina, and Ireland. These currencies not only helped form imagined local publics for these provinces, but also produced imaginary notions of sovereignty for provincial legislative assemblies and their subjects. It comments on Jurgen Habermas's argument that a free and rational “bourgeois public sphere” emerged in Britain in this period by showing how writers like Swift, in both his British and Irish pamphleteering, persuaded readers into believing that they were part of an inclusive sovereign public. The work of Swift in defeating monetary experiments of all kinds in Ireland, written on behalf of an Anglo-Irish ruling elite that was the only demographic for whom the term “the public” truly applied, mobilized more common Irish readers with patriotic rhetoric. Swift's Drapier's Letters, in particular, thereby created an Irish counter-public to the more strictly elite “political public”—a counter-public that nonetheless became constituted as a popular market for the satire of Swift and others. This reading of the Drapier's Letters, following observations put forward by Clifford Siskin and Christian Thorne-Miano about the “invention” of British literature in this period, argues that the first modern Anglo-Irish discipline of literature is “forged” through such Swiftian publicity.

Making Claims for Power: A New Agenda in Dalit Politics of Uttar Pradesh, 1946-48

‘. . . [T]he awakened untouchable today is repeatedly asking them [the Congress] if they could not remove the ‘social evil’ of their own creation without political power, how do they expect us [the untouchables] to liberate ourselves without political power’. (Shastri, Poona Pact. 1946, p. 24)‘This is 1946, not 1932’. (Shastri, Poona Pact. 1946, p.76)Shankaranand Shastri's statements help us locate two related propositions that came to constitute Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh in the 1940s. The first proposition deals with claims made by Dalits to acquire political power—specifically in the form of adequate representation in the provincial legislative assemblies and in the Constituent Assembly. They demanded positive discrimination in the form of reservations within legislative and executive institutions. Safeguards for Dalits, it was argued, should be incorporated into the proposed constitution for Indian citizens. The second proposition concerns achhut identity, through which Dalits hoped to reconstitute their polity in UP. The Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) and even a section of Congress Harijans staked a claim for achhut identity to distinguish their difference from ‘other communities.’ Dalit writings increasingly depicted the Poona Pact as a great betrayal by the Congress and the British. From their experience of the two general elections of 1937 and 1946, they argued that the electoral mechanism worked out under the aegis of the Poona Pact was structured against the Dalits.

Terminating the Provincial Career: Retirement and Electoral Defeat in Canadian Provincial Legislatures, 1960–1997

AbstractThis article analyzes data on incumbent turnover in 103 provincial elections in Canada from 1960 to 1997. The author examines total turnover and the proportions attributable to retirement and electoral defeat. He notes that the overall rate of turnover in the provincial legislative assemblies is similar to that of the Canadian House of Commons. Further, voluntary retirement and electoral defeat comprise equal proportions of the total turnover. There are, however, important differences in the turnover rate and in its makeup, both by province and by time period. The author tests several models in an attempt to determine the correlates of turnover in Canadian provincial legislatures.

Marriage in Islam by Begum Habibullah (1883-1975)

This article identifies some of India's key legislative acts, reform measures, and Islamic laws on marriage in India and reports a speech in support of the Sarda Act that was passed in 1929. The speech was delivered by Begum Habibullah at the annual meeting of the Oudh Women's Social and Educational Conference. She was married to a landed family, and her husband was educated in England and a member of the civil service. She founded a school for Muslim girls and was elected in 1937 to the provincial legislative assembly. Social reforms were promulgated during 1920-47 among the legislatures of India. Many reforms changed Hindu laws, and some targeted women of all communities. Many reforms addressed child marriage and women's rights with regard to marriage, divorce, and inheritance. The impact of these reforms manifested itself in the stimulation of discussion of gender issues. The Age of Consent Committee in 1928 included mostly Indians and two women. The Committee collected evidence across the country of the prevalence and effects of child marriage. The Committee report concluded that child marriage in India affected about 40% of girls. Child marriage at ages under 15 years was most prevalent in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa states, followed by the Central provinces and Berar and Bombay. Child marriage was more prevalent among Hindus than Muslims. Liberals tended to oppose child marriage, while religious Hindus and Muslims and conservatives tended to oppose restrictions to child marriage. The bill to regulate marriage age was introduced in 1929. The Sarda Act made it illegal to marry under the age of 14 years for girls and 18 years for boys. The Act was supported by women's groups. Begum's views were indicative of views of the time regarding the concern for women. She stressed the Act's complementarity to Islamic law.

The Dynamics of Women's Representation in the Canadian Provinces: 1975–1994

AbstractThis article presents evidence concerning women's representation in Canada's provincial legislative assemblies over a 20-year period (1975–1994). Data from 3,755 elections and over 11,000 candidates are analyzed to inspect trends in representation. The authors find there has been a gradual increase in both female candidates and legislators. The New Democratic party has clearly been the leader in putting women on the ballot and into legislatures at the provincial level. In addition, hypotheses are tested to see if there are differences across provinces in parties' willingness to nominate and elect women, and whether women are more likely to be nominated primarily in districts where a party does not expect to win. The study finds that the Atlantic provinces lagged behind the rest of Canada as representation increased markedly everywhere else in the late 1980s and the 1990s. There is also evidence that the major parties nominated female challengers in ridings that were inferior to the ridings where the party's male challengers ran in the mid- to late-1970s. By the mid-1980s, however, evidence that women were treated as sacrificial lambs had disappeared.

The 1946 Punjab Elections

On August 21st 1945 the viceroy announced that elections would be held that Winter to the Central and Provincial Legislative Assemblies. They were to precede the convention of a constitution-making body for British India. The Muslim League had to succeed in this crucial test if its popular support of its demand for Pakistan was to be credible. In particular it had to succeed in the Punjab as there could be no Pakistan without that province. But in the Punjab's last elections held in 1937 the League had fared disastrously. It had put forward a mere seven candidates for the 85 Muslim seats and only two had been successful. In the 1946 elections the League won 75 of the total Muslim seats. This improvement in its performance which had momentous implications for the future for the subcontinent requires explanation.

The Congress at the 1937 Elections in Madras

In February 1937, the Congress party in the Madras Presidency won 159 of 215 seats in the provincial Legislative Assembly at the first elections under provincial autonomy. It was the most convincing victory for the Congress in any province of British India, and neither the Madras Government nor the Congress leaders had expected it. In the two and a half years Congress rule that followed, their ministers made adept use of their powers. They cut land revenue and dismantled the procedure for revising the land revenue demand, thus appealing to the pocket of every landholder. They re-instated all the village officers who had been dismissed for aiding the Congress during Civil Disobedience, thus instructing the leaders of rural society where the source of power and influence now lay. They passed two measures to alleviate the burden of agricultural debt, and threatened to legislate in favour of the tenants inside the major landed estates. Meanwhile, for the first time, the Cogress established a network of committees throughout the province, and by 1939 this new machine had placed virtually every local government board under a Congress régime. The number of Congerss members in the Tamil and Andhra areas rose from 115,971 on the eve of the 1937 elections to 594,397 in 1938.

The Political Role of Pakistan's Civil Service

T HE BRITISH OFTEN USED to describe the Indian Civil Service as the steel frame of the whole structure which constituted the Government of India.' Today in the Government of Pakistan the civil servants often play an even more powerful role than that of their imperial predecessors. Their ascent to power has been both steady and dramatic. Under the dominating personality of the Quaid-i-Azam (Mr. Jinnah) and his successor, Liaquat Ali Khan, the civil servants effectively controlled the entire administration in the provinces and the politicians there were kept in power subject to their willingness to obey Central Government directives. Three of the four Governors under Mr. Jinnah were British and former Indian Civil Service officers and two of these Governors presided over Cabinet meetings.2 One of them was able to reallocate portfolios without the approval of his Chief Minister. All of them wrote fortnightly letters to the Quaid-i-Azam giving a detailed account of everything ranging from intrigues in the provincial cabinets to details of refugee rehabilitation or the food problem.3 Under Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, whose authority was never as great as that of the Quaid-i-Azam, the Ceneral Government could often resort to Section 92A or use the Public and Representative Offices (Disqualification) Act, popularly known as the PRODA, to dismiss defiant or corrupt provincial politicians. Thus, under Section 92A the Provincial Legislative Assembly of West Punjab was dissolved in January I949, the Government dismissed and administration taken over by the Governor. Sind was the scene of its usual see-saw for political power between competing and intriguing politicians. Only the North-West Frontier Province was an exception, thanks to the stable but severe regime of Khan Abdul Qaiyum Khan. Politics in West

After the War in India

J4 NDIA IS QUIET much too said a reporter to me in Washington, discussing the attitude almost complete silence the press towards India. How has this quiet been maintained during the war; how long will it last; and how is it likely to be broken? These questions are vital interest to those who are concerned with postwar peace in India and throughout Asia. The quiet in India today is artificial, brought about by a number factors which will not survive for long after the war. Thousands the most activeand influential workers are in prison or have disappeared underground. The Defense India rules are effective in preventing demonstrations and meetings. Impeding the effective prosecution the is a convenient phrase under cover which the executive authorities can arrest, detain or imprison anyone whose activities do not meet with their approval. Censorship, the rigors which vary in accordance with the needs the Indian situation, can always be relied upon to suppress news and dispatches likely to be of value to the enemy, a phrase considerable elasticity. Provincial legislative assemblies have not functioned at all in five major provinces in India for more than five years and there has been no popular government in these provinces (where the Congress Ministries held office) since November 1939. More than half British India, in terms population, is administered by Governors with the assistance senior civilian advisers, most them British. By the end 1944, there were on the statute-book over 300 ordinances promulgated by the Viceroy, on his sole authority, without any reference to the Central legislature possibly without even the consent the Executive Council. Before the war such Ordinances, designed to meet emergencies, could not have legal validity beyond a period six months. Mr. Amery's first act, on assuming charge the India Office in the summer 1940, was to amend the provision so as to confer on them the permanent sanction ordinary legislation. But his assurance to Parliament, in seeking its consent to the change, that only one class Ordinances would be