The UK has a fragmented, partial and weak system of lobbying regulation. The system creates a self-reinforcing cycle of ‘exposure’ and worsening public attitudes. In order to make the case for reform and indicate possible paths, this article reviews the system’s faults and weaknesses and then analyses how the lack of political will for reform in Westminster has contributed to a transparency and integrity regime which falls below international standards. Finally, it examines how this cycle can be broken. While the UK lobbying law needs reform, we must look beyond the letter of regulation, taking into account the levels of use and political support, as well as the transparency and ethics ecosystem in which lobbying sits. Only by improvements to all of these areas can there be the possibility of stronger, more positive feedback loops, which can shift behaviour and, ultimately, attitudes.
{"title":"Cleaning Up UK Politics: What Would Better Lobbying Regulation Look Like?","authors":"Michele Crepaz, Ben Worthy","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad024","url":null,"abstract":"The UK has a fragmented, partial and weak system of lobbying regulation. The system creates a self-reinforcing cycle of ‘exposure’ and worsening public attitudes. In order to make the case for reform and indicate possible paths, this article reviews the system’s faults and weaknesses and then analyses how the lack of political will for reform in Westminster has contributed to a transparency and integrity regime which falls below international standards. Finally, it examines how this cycle can be broken. While the UK lobbying law needs reform, we must look beyond the letter of regulation, taking into account the levels of use and political support, as well as the transparency and ethics ecosystem in which lobbying sits. Only by improvements to all of these areas can there be the possibility of stronger, more positive feedback loops, which can shift behaviour and, ultimately, attitudes.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"AES-18 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139270234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The ‘Big Lie’ in American politics has sparked intense concern about the erosion of public confidence in the integrity of US elections—raising questions about the legitimacy of the authorities, institutions, and principles of democratic governance. Cynicism generated from misinformation about trustworthy elections has attracted a growing body of individual-level social-psychological research in America and Europe. Another common problem found around the world, however, which has received far less attention, concerns credulous citizens who express considerable faith and confidence in flawed contests. This study theorises that at macro-level, the accuracy of any public judgments about trustworthy elections is likely to be mediated by the information environment in open and closed societies, as well as by the type of regime. To understand these issues, Part I summarises the conceptual and theoretical argument about trust and trustworthiness. Part II describes the sources of evidence. To apply the theory, data on public opinion is drawn from around 85 societies around the globe included in Waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey (2010–2022), with measures of electoral trust and subjective perceptions of electoral integrity among ordinary citizens. Institutional electoral performance indices are drawn from the Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem 12.0). Part III analyses how far these independent estimates match public judgments of the trustworthiness of elections in each country – and how far such relationships are conditioned by the type of information society as well as by the type of regime. Part IV highlights the key findings and considers their broader implications for understanding the macro-level conditions for trust and trustworthiness.
{"title":"Big Little Election Lies: Cynical and Credulous Evaluations of Electoral Fraud","authors":"Pippa Norris","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The ‘Big Lie’ in American politics has sparked intense concern about the erosion of public confidence in the integrity of US elections—raising questions about the legitimacy of the authorities, institutions, and principles of democratic governance. Cynicism generated from misinformation about trustworthy elections has attracted a growing body of individual-level social-psychological research in America and Europe. Another common problem found around the world, however, which has received far less attention, concerns credulous citizens who express considerable faith and confidence in flawed contests. This study theorises that at macro-level, the accuracy of any public judgments about trustworthy elections is likely to be mediated by the information environment in open and closed societies, as well as by the type of regime. To understand these issues, Part I summarises the conceptual and theoretical argument about trust and trustworthiness. Part II describes the sources of evidence. To apply the theory, data on public opinion is drawn from around 85 societies around the globe included in Waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey (2010–2022), with measures of electoral trust and subjective perceptions of electoral integrity among ordinary citizens. Institutional electoral performance indices are drawn from the Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem 12.0). Part III analyses how far these independent estimates match public judgments of the trustworthiness of elections in each country – and how far such relationships are conditioned by the type of information society as well as by the type of regime. Part IV highlights the key findings and considers their broader implications for understanding the macro-level conditions for trust and trustworthiness.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"15 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135976128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract A crucial feature of the democratic life cycle, government stability, has prompted the interest of many scholars across the globe. As a result, research on this matter has established itself as one of the most developed agendas in comparative politics. However, despite the abundance of studies on the drivers of government stability, the ruling parties’ capacity to promote policy change when in government remains unexplored. This study aims to fill this lacuna by testing the effect of political constraints on the premature end of cabinets. It does so by leveraging an original longitudinal multilevel dataset comprising information on 429 governments in 20 Western European countries on which event history analyses are performed. The study’s findings show that high political constraints significantly increase the risk of cabinet termination, indicating that seeking to survive in office without governing can be an impassable road for ruling parties.
{"title":"Paralysed Governments: How Political Constraints Elicit Cabinet Termination","authors":"Marco Improta","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A crucial feature of the democratic life cycle, government stability, has prompted the interest of many scholars across the globe. As a result, research on this matter has established itself as one of the most developed agendas in comparative politics. However, despite the abundance of studies on the drivers of government stability, the ruling parties’ capacity to promote policy change when in government remains unexplored. This study aims to fill this lacuna by testing the effect of political constraints on the premature end of cabinets. It does so by leveraging an original longitudinal multilevel dataset comprising information on 429 governments in 20 Western European countries on which event history analyses are performed. The study’s findings show that high political constraints significantly increase the risk of cabinet termination, indicating that seeking to survive in office without governing can be an impassable road for ruling parties.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"9 12","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136234303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article questions what social scientists mean by the term ‘Member of Parliament’ (‘MP’) and explains that they tend to associate it with a universal conception of parliamentary representation. The author starts to present the rationale behind this presupposition, which lies in the resistance of legislative studies to interpretive approaches, and shows its limits. He then defends the necessity of extensive scientific knowledge of deliberative assemblies to distinguish the vernacular meanings of the notion of ‘MP’ from its analytical meaning. Finally, he takes the example of his own research in France to show the concrete difficulties of a singular conception of parliamentary representation and to expose the virtues of using empirical-based ideal types to overcome them.
{"title":"What Do We Call an ‘MP’? On Categories of Thought in the Anthropology of Parliaments","authors":"Jonathan Chibois","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article questions what social scientists mean by the term ‘Member of Parliament’ (‘MP’) and explains that they tend to associate it with a universal conception of parliamentary representation. The author starts to present the rationale behind this presupposition, which lies in the resistance of legislative studies to interpretive approaches, and shows its limits. He then defends the necessity of extensive scientific knowledge of deliberative assemblies to distinguish the vernacular meanings of the notion of ‘MP’ from its analytical meaning. Finally, he takes the example of his own research in France to show the concrete difficulties of a singular conception of parliamentary representation and to expose the virtues of using empirical-based ideal types to overcome them.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"5 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135567550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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.
{"title":"Beyond Institutional Adaptation: Legislative Europeanisation and Parliamentary Attention to the EU in the Hungarian Parliament","authors":"András Bíró-Nagy, Aron Buzogány","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad018","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135966716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robin Devroe, Hilde Coffé, Audrey Vandeleene, Bram Wauters
Lay Summary Women consistently report lower levels of nascent political ambition than men. In this study, we investigate whether these gender differences occur to the same extent across local, national and European levels of policy-making. Using original data collected among a representative sample of young Flemish citizens aged between 18 and 35 (N = 1000), our descriptive results demonstrate a significant gender gap across all levels of policy-making, though the gap is slightly smaller at the local level. Stacked multivariate analyses confirm women’s lower levels of political ambition and show that the gender gap is significantly smaller at the local level compared with the European (but not the national) level, pointing to women’s lower levels of ambition for the European level.
{"title":"Gender Gaps in Political Ambition on Different Levels of Policy-Making","authors":"Robin Devroe, Hilde Coffé, Audrey Vandeleene, Bram Wauters","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad019","url":null,"abstract":"Lay Summary Women consistently report lower levels of nascent political ambition than men. In this study, we investigate whether these gender differences occur to the same extent across local, national and European levels of policy-making. Using original data collected among a representative sample of young Flemish citizens aged between 18 and 35 (N = 1000), our descriptive results demonstrate a significant gender gap across all levels of policy-making, though the gap is slightly smaller at the local level. Stacked multivariate analyses confirm women’s lower levels of political ambition and show that the gender gap is significantly smaller at the local level compared with the European (but not the national) level, pointing to women’s lower levels of ambition for the European level.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135307039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to: Lobbying in the UK: Towards Robust Regulation","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135307041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic altered the political agendas and the existing agenda-setting processes of nations worldwide. While in times of crisis, incumbent parties cannot ignore problems and be purely strategic agenda setters, non-incumbent parties can be more selective and strategise the attention they devote to certain political issues. Based on an analysis of 1507 parliamentary questions posed by the parties in the multi-party parliament of Denmark before and during the first COVID-19 wave (March–June 2020), the present article aims at determining what explains issue emphasis during the crisis. During the first stages of the COVID-19 crisis, parties from both the right and the left of the political spectrum rather than emphasising only issues they ‘own’, devoted special attention to the most salient issues, including those connected to the pandemic. These findings have important implications for political responsiveness in times of crisis.
{"title":"Riding the COVID-19 Wave? Issue Attention during the Pandemic","authors":"Queralt Tornafoch-Chirveches","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic altered the political agendas and the existing agenda-setting processes of nations worldwide. While in times of crisis, incumbent parties cannot ignore problems and be purely strategic agenda setters, non-incumbent parties can be more selective and strategise the attention they devote to certain political issues. Based on an analysis of 1507 parliamentary questions posed by the parties in the multi-party parliament of Denmark before and during the first COVID-19 wave (March–June 2020), the present article aims at determining what explains issue emphasis during the crisis. During the first stages of the COVID-19 crisis, parties from both the right and the left of the political spectrum rather than emphasising only issues they ‘own’, devoted special attention to the most salient issues, including those connected to the pandemic. These findings have important implications for political responsiveness in times of crisis.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135394508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Leaving parliament is often a time of significant financial, employment and emotional difficulty for MPs. However, few studies have examined the support provided by parliaments to departing and former members. Consequently, parliaments lack access to best-practice case studies to improve the transitional experience for MPs. This article develops five benchmarks for supporting former MPs, covering transitional financial assistance; retirement income; career, financial, life transitions and redundancy counselling; mental health and medical services; and social and networking opportunities. These benchmarks are used to assess the support provided to former members by 22 selected ‘professional parliaments’. Although most of these parliaments offer adequate retirement income, none currently provide sufficient transitional financial assistance for MPs who depart before pensionable age. In all cases, improvements are also required to mental health and other counselling services. Most parliaments provide adequate social and networking opportunities. Implementing and extending these measures will improve the transitional experience of former MPs and enhance democratic rotation by reducing impediments to high-quality candidates from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds from seeking political office, while easing the exit of MPs who are ready to leave.
{"title":"Transitional Support for Former Members of Parliament: Benchmarks for ‘Professional Parliaments’","authors":"Peter Ferguson, Amy Nethery, Zim Nwokora","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Leaving parliament is often a time of significant financial, employment and emotional difficulty for MPs. However, few studies have examined the support provided by parliaments to departing and former members. Consequently, parliaments lack access to best-practice case studies to improve the transitional experience for MPs. This article develops five benchmarks for supporting former MPs, covering transitional financial assistance; retirement income; career, financial, life transitions and redundancy counselling; mental health and medical services; and social and networking opportunities. These benchmarks are used to assess the support provided to former members by 22 selected ‘professional parliaments’. Although most of these parliaments offer adequate retirement income, none currently provide sufficient transitional financial assistance for MPs who depart before pensionable age. In all cases, improvements are also required to mental health and other counselling services. Most parliaments provide adequate social and networking opportunities. Implementing and extending these measures will improve the transitional experience of former MPs and enhance democratic rotation by reducing impediments to high-quality candidates from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds from seeking political office, while easing the exit of MPs who are ready to leave.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136107778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.
{"title":"Parliamentary Committees and Ex-post Oversight: Institutional Options and Design","authors":"Hallbera West","doi":"10.1093/pa/gsad015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsad015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.","PeriodicalId":19790,"journal":{"name":"Parliamentary Affairs","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43634296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：