Parliaments: Internal and External Organization of Democratic Representation

In a representative democracy, parliaments are key arenas for decision-making. How they organize both internally and externally affects policy outcomes. This section takes outset in the chain of delegation between citizens and governments. Therefore, we have panels examining the relationship between citizens and MPs and between parliament and the executive. Two panels examine who works in parliaments, both as MPs and in the parliamentary staff. The final three panels examine parliaments from a multilevel perspective, examining their role in the international arena and their relations with multilateral bodies such as the United Nations, and subnational councils, that are representative bodies – parliaments – in their own right. We also take the role of legislative elites in developing democracies into perspective. Short biographies of co-chairs Flemming Juul Christiansen is associate professor in politics at Roskilde University. He publishes on legislative bargaining. Currently, he is co-convenor of the ECPR parliamentary standing group. Simon Otjes is assistant professor of Dutch Politics at Leiden University. His research interests include parliamentary behaviour at the national, local and European level. 1. Making Representation Work: Electoral Systems and Legislative Behaviour Chair: Jorge Fernandes (University of Lisbon). Discussant: Thomas Saalfeld (University Bamberg) Over the past decades, the literature on electoral systems has exploded. Most of this literature is focused on testing hypotheses against the null hypothesis that Carey and Shugart (1995) are ultimately correct. This results in a patchy and fragmented approach to the impact of electoral systems in shaping legislative behaviour. This panel invites papers dealing with two primary aspects. First, submissions should deal with how electoral systems influence legislative behaviour, including mediating variables, that is, the interaction electoral systems, candidate selection processes, and party organization. Second, we welcome submissions dealing with legislators’ individual preferences and the context in which they operate. 2. Executive-Legislative Behaviour Svenja Krauss (University of Vienna) & Maria Thürk (University Basel) The relationship between the executive and the legislature is one fundamental aspect of every democratic country. Especially in parliamentary systems, the executive and the legislature are importantly intertwined and are therefore highly dependent on each other. This dependency can have important implications for the behaviour of parties and MPs. This panel invites submissions that deal with the relationship between the parliament and the government and how this relationship influences the behaviour of the involved actors such as MPs and parties. 3. The Legislative Process Co-chairs: Patricia Calca (Konstanz University) & Ittai Bar Siman Tov (Bar-Ilan University) Discussant: Lanny Martin (Bocconi University) This panel will deal with the legislative process in its broad sense: from initiation, pre-legislative stages, all parliamentary stages in the plenum and committees, adoption, and implementation and post legislative scrutiny. Examples of some possible subjects include executive-parliamentary powers in the legislative process and respective strategic interactions; pathologies in the legislative process; reforms and better law-making initiatives; the impact of covid-19 on the legislative process; legislative/public policies evaluation; etc. We welcome various methodological approaches, including, empirical (quantitative and qualitative), comparative, theoretical, and normative approaches. 4. Political Careers* Tomas Turner (Tilburg University) & Hanna Bäck (Lund University) Interest in the academic study of political careers dates to social science classics such as Weber’s essay (1919) ‘Politics as a Vocation’, and Mills’ (1956) ’The Power Elite. Lack of detailed biographical political data and methods to collect and analyse these data made this research difficult. Thanks to new (online) data sources and better software, this situation is now changing. We in particular welcome papers that study individual career transitions across levels (e.g. the promotion from municipal council member to alderman, from MP to minister); complete career trajectories; the post-parliamentary careers of politicians; and macro-level outcomes of career dynamics like gender composition, professionalisation etc. * Endorsed by the Standing Group on Elites and Political Leadership as well. 5. The people who run parliament Gijs Jan Brandsma (Radboud University Nijmegen) & Pieter Moens (Ghent University) Parliaments are large organisations, crowded with myriad secretaries and staffers of many kinds who massively outnumber the elected legislators. This machine room – including the non-partisan clerks who manage the work of parliamentary committees, political staffers that support party groups, and other advisors - is largely a black spot in the literature on legislative behaviour and decision-making. Some isolated country-specific studies of their roles and activities do exist, but thus far no comparative framework exists for capturing their activities. This panel seeks to make a first step towards such a comparative agenda and invites papers on partisan and non-partisan staffers and advisors to parliaments. 6. Political Behaviour in Regional and Local Councils Martin Gross (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) & Simon Otjes (Leiden University) Local and regional parliaments have received relatively little attention from political scientists so far. This is surprising because these subnational legislatures make important decisions that affect citizens and despite the fact that many national politicians learn the tricks of the trade here. This panel invites papers analysing and/or theorising political behaviour in municipal councils and regional legislatures using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. We encourage the submission of comparative papers as well as single case studies. 7. Parliaments and Multilateralism Teemu Häkkinen (University of Jyväskylä) & Anna Kronlund (University of Jyväskylä) This panel focuses on novel research agenda, namely the interaction between national parliaments and legislatures and multilateralism in which, for example, new research avenues on the parliamentarization of foreign policy in selected countries and the processes of multilateral cooperation could be explored. Suitable themes for this panel include actions of leading political actors and officials, parties, and their roles in both national legislatures and multilateral cooperation, and shift of ideas, arguments, and concepts between different political forums. We welcome papers with empirical or theoretical focus. In particular we encourage papers related to the interface of the United Nations or other international organizations and parliaments. 8. Comparative Legislative Elites in Emerging Democracies * Chaired by Athanassios Gouglas (University of Exeter) More detailed description to be sent in. * Endorsed by the Standing Group on Elites and Political Leadership as well.