Commonwealth Parliament from 1901 to World War I

This paper provides an overview of Australia as a newly emerging ‘nation-state’ and the evolution of the federal Parliament by tracing the seven elections held from 1901 to 1918. Executive summary • The Commonwealth Parliament of Australia was just 13 years old when World War I broke out on 28 July 1914. • Prior to Federation in 1901, each Australian colony had been responsible for its own defence arrangements. At Federation, section 51(vi) of the Australian Constitution gave the new Commonwealth Parliament the power to make laws with respect to ‘the naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and of the several States’. The Governor-General became Australia’s Commander-in-Chief and the states transferred their naval and military forces to the Commonwealth of Australia under the control of the Department of Defence. • The Parliament passed Australia’s first Defence Act in 1903, empowering the Commonwealth Government to call up ‘unexempted’ males in times of war for home defence, but not for overseas service. When Parliament passed the Defence Act 1909, it paved the way for Australia’s first universal training scheme, which came into operation in 1911, requiring Australian males aged between 18 and 60 years to perform militia service within Australia and its territories. • The development of Australia’s defence policy was conditioned by the new nation’s reliance on Britain, the substantial cost in establishing and maintaining a navy, and Britain’s desire that the colonies should provide financial support for its own navy rather than establishing separate regionally-based fleets which could weaken central control in emergencies. By 1914, Australia had established the Royal Australian Navy and developed an independent system of military training from which could be drawn a citizen army of mainly conscripted soldiers. • Whilst the Parliament was not involved in Australia’s decision to go to war, it took an active role in shaping the new nation’s public safety and defence laws. In addition to war-related legislation, the Parliament also passed significant measures that were to have an enduring impact on Australia, including laws relating to income tax and the electoral system. • Between Federation and the end of World War I, 270 men had served in the Commonwealth Parliament. Of these, 23 saw active service in World War I, nine of whom were members of parliament at the time of their military service

Radical “Citizens of the World,” 1790–95: The Early Career of Henry Redhead Yorke

This article takes a new look at British radicalism in the 1790s and explores it within broad geographical and cultural frameworks and through the early career of Henry Redhead Yorke, a West Indian Creole who became a radical in England but frequently recanted his politics. It views radicalism within the Atlantic World and provides a broader interpretation of the excluded majority than as an English working class. It examines the radical “citizens of the world” and sheds new light on the apparent conflict within English radicalism between universalist and constitutionalist ideologies. Politicization and identity are the key themes here examined within micro- and macro-histories

Gender and History

This book provides an overview of Irish gender history from the end of the Great Famine in 1852 until the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922. It builds on the work that scholars of women’s history pioneered and brings together internationally regarded experts to offer a synthesis of the current historiography and existing debates within the field. The authors place emphasis on highlighting new and exciting sources, methodologies, and suggested areas for future research. They address a variety of critical themes such as the family, reproduction and sexuality, the medical and prison systems, masculinities and femininities, institutions, charity, the missions, migration, ‘elite women’, and the involvement of women in the Irish nationalist/revolutionary period. Envisioned to be both thematic and chronological, the book provides insight into the comparative, transnational, and connected histories of Ireland, India, and the British empire. An important contribution to the study of Irish gender history, the volume offers opportunities for students and researchers to learn from the methods and historiography of Irish studies. It will be useful for scholars and teachers of history, gender studies, colonialism, post-colonialism, European history, Irish history, Irish studies, and political history

From 20th Century troubles to 21st Century international terrorism: identity, securitization, and British counterterrorism from 1968 to 2011

This thesis is an exploration into the consequential interrelation of official British discourse, identity, securitization, and counterterrorism from 1968 to 2011. Through a relational-securitization approach, the thesis narrative explains how discourse is both constitutive and causal for outcomes in a particular case. It is a relational mechanism based analysis that investigates how observed rhetorical commonplaces came together to influence intersubjective understanding and security practice. The ways that identities were temporarily stabilized across discourse through particular configurations was essential to how British counterterrorism emerged, was maintained, and became normalized. The thesis does not argue that possible insecurities categorized as “terrorism” do not exist, or that a security response is in itself surprising. However, how this response unfolded was not predetermined, and instead depended upon a securitization of terrorism along distinctive patterns of us/them construction. These patterns influenced the trajectory of counterterrorism by enabling certain outcomes to arise over others. Collective understandings of identity shape the conditions of possibility for political action. As such, discourses of securitization have a causal impact over intersubjective understanding and counterterrorism ractice. Historical moments, such as the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings or 11 September 2001 attacks, can facilitate a more rapid passage of exceptional measures. But the maintenance and normalization of these powers depends upon us/them and inside/outside boundary markers. Violent acts may thus influence outcomes, but they do not determine their substance or direction. Reasserted and/or reconfigured perceptions of distance and danger stabilizing the threat and referent in particular ways played a key role in counterterrorism’s transition from emergency response to permanent practice. Through a relational-securitization approach, analysis can better map out how processes of identity construction were essential to the securitization of terrorism, and contributed to the emergence, legitimation, and normalization of British counterterrorism from 1968 to 2011

Questioning Prime Ministers: Procedures, Practices and Functions in Parliamentary Democracies

This thesis investigates parliamentary oral questioning mechanisms that involve prime ministers in parliamentary democracies. Considering the fact that prime ministers are powerful and visible actors in parliamentary democracies, and that accountability is a key component of democratic politics, it maps the mechanisms through which parliamentarians may question prime ministers in different countries, and explores the extent to which these mechanisms contribute to accountability, and the extent to which they perform other functions. The first research component is a survey of procedural rules regarding mechanisms through which parliamentarians may question prime ministers in 31 parliamentary democracies. It draws on an indepth examination of parliamentary rules of procedure, followed by a consultation with practitioners and officials in each country to uncover aspects of convention and practice. Subsequently, questioning mechanisms are classified based on dimensions such as their collective or individualised nature, the extent to which procedures allow more open or closed participation, as well as the degree of questioning exposure to which prime ministers are subjected. It then discusses how these dimensions might affect the practice of questioning. Drawing on these classifications, the second research component investigates the practice of questioning prime ministers in four countries: two using collective questioning mechanisms, where prime ministers are questioned together with ministers (Question Period in Canada, Question Time in Australia); and two using individualised mechanisms, where prime ministers are questioned alone (Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK, Oral Questions to the Taoiseach in Ireland). This second component relies on quantitative and qualitative content analysis of transcripts of parliamentary debates for each case study country. Departing from the assumption that parliamentary questioning mechanisms are designed to facilitate accountability, it investigates the degree to which they do so, and the degree to which they perform other functions, such as facilitating the expression of conflict, support, or territorial representation