Parliamentary Turnover in Europe and the World: Normative Yardsticks and Empirical Explanations

Abstract

Parliamentary, legislative or simply turnover is a ‘kind of seismographer’ through which one can detect shifts in the foundations of politics and policy (Putnam 1976). It is also a ‘democratic thermometer’ measuring the temperature of democratic politics in any one country (Crowther and Manytone 2007). As a topic of scientific research turnover has being attracting attention since the seminal work by Charles Hyneman (1936) on US state level legislatures in the 1930s. The topic witnessed a revival in the 1980s and 1990s thanks to the debate on term limits in the USA. Since 2012 turnover has attracted the attention of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) mainly due to concerns about extremely volatile parliamentary personnel in developing democracies. Today, turnover remains primarily an American topic. Internationally comparative research, as well as single country research on its determinants remains very limited. There remains an open research agenda both in terms of basic descriptions, as well as explanations. The normative discussion around turnover is also embryonic, the world over. This panel invites papers with both a normative and an empirical focus. Fundamental questions to be answered. Is there an optimal level of turnover and what is the normative yardstick against which we measure it? How did turnover develop in time and what explains variability across-levels, across time?